Japanese Fairy Tales
2010 October 13
Japanese Fairy Tales
Japan’s legendary group is the result of suggestions made into me indirectly through a friend of Mr. Andrew Lang. They have been translated from the modern version written by Sanjin Sadanami. These stories are never literal translation, & although the story of the Japanese & all the expressions have been faithfully preserved ancient Japan, they were informed with a view into interest young readers of the West of the technical students of the people – knowledge. Grateful acknowledgment is due into Mr Y. Yasuoka, Miss Fusa Okamoto, my brother Nobumori Ozaki, Dr. Yoshihiro Takaki, & Miss Kameko Yamao, which has helped me with translations.
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Review by Zack Davisson for Japanese Fairy Tales
Rating:
Originally published in 1903, Yei Theodora Ozaki’s translation of Sadanami Sanjin’s collection of Japanese fairy tales has been the introduction of many a young child into the legends and fables of old Japan across the years. Definitely not a scholarly reference or valuable research tool for folktale researchers, Ozaki unabashedly re-crafted some of the stories, translating loosely and adding in elements of unrelated tales, in order to make them more enjoyable and understandable for Western children. She even gave Urashimataro a happy ending!
There is something delightfully romantic about translations from this era, due to the unfamiliarity with Japanese culture at the time. Terms that would not be translated today, like “oni” and “samurai”, are rendered as “ogre” and “knight” and other English equivalents. While unauthentic, this makes the stories more approachable by young children who have a mind for fantasy but haven’t yet graduated to Japanese Studies.
While far from a picture book, artist Kakuzo Fujiyama contributed 66 beautiful drawings to illustrate the 22 tales. Unfortunately, all the illustrations are reproduced in black-and-white, instead of the original color plates included in the original pressings.
Many of the stories here are familiar with anyone even slightly interested in Japanese folklore. “Momotaro, or the Story of the Son of a Peach, “The Story of Urashima Taro, the Fisher Lad”, “Kintaro the Golden Boy” and “The Ogre of Rashomon”. Along with these, there are rarer tales that I haven’t seen in any other Japanese fairy tale collection. “The Stones of Five Colors and the Empress Jokwa”, “The Sagacious Monkey and the Boar” and “How and Old Man Lost his Wren” were all new to me.
Review by B. Tackitt for Japanese Fairy Tales
Rating:
the stories are wonderful. a few of them match some of the stoies we heard while living in Okinawa with the military.
HOWEVER, I cannot give the Kindle version a 5 star like I would like to, because the formatting is absolutely horrendous.
Review by Mishi Mo for Japanese Fairy Tales
Rating:
Since it was free I didn’t really know what to expect but the stories are quite nice. Not all of them are light-hearted though and even with the ones with “happy endings” you still might not want to read them to kids.
Review by Brian P. for Japanese Fairy Tales
Rating:
The stories in this book were very interesting and I enjoyed them. However, I do think it would be nice if the free Kindle edition contained the original illustrations. The same is true for most, if not all of the free classics for Kindle. But of course it is free.
Review by David for Japanese Fairy Tales
Rating:
This is a graet book on this set of Japanese Fairy Tales. When I first gt the book I was impressed with the cover it made me want to read it. The stories were great and the illustrations were good to. Its nice to see a book with illustrations. After being in contact the publisher I found out that there will be more books in this series.