Japanese Horror Stories
Princess Kaguya
Btw was once in Doraemon
Princess Kaguya ( ⁇ Kaguya hime no monogatari, Tale of Princess Kaguya) or Taketori monogatari ( ⁇ , Tale of the Bamboo Takeer) is the oldest Japanese folklore.[1] The story of a girl who found a bamboo-taker grandfather from inside a glowing bamboo stalk.
The story is thought to have originated in the early Heian period. In the 16th volume of the lemma 3791, there is a choka (long prose) titled Taketori no Okina (Bamboo Takeer Grandfather), which tells of a woman from kahyangan (tennyo). This story is thought to have something to do with the story of Princess Kaguya who is also known as Taketori no okina no monogatari (The story of the Grandfather of Bamboo Taking).
Story
Once upon a time there lived a grandfather with his old wife. Grandpa worked by picking up bamboo in the forest. Bamboo was made into various items, and people called it Grandfather Bamboo Picker. One day, when grandfather entered the bamboo forest, a bamboo tree with a glowing base was seen. Grandpa was astonished and cut the bamboo. Out of the bamboo stem, a little girl, only about 9 cm tall but sweet and funny. She brought the girl home and raised her like a child. Since then, every day grandfather always found gold from inside the bamboo stems. Grandpa and Grandma became rich. Within three months, the daughter who was raised grew up to become a very beautiful princess. The beauty of this princess is hard to match, so beautiful that it needs to be named. People call her Princess Kaguya (Nayotake no kaguya hime).
Princess Kaguya's beauty news spread across the country. Men from all walks of life, from nobles to commoners, all wanted to marry Princess Kaguya. They come in succession to Princess Kaguya's house to ask for her hand, but are continuously rejected by Princess Kaguya. Despite knowing their efforts were in vain, the men who wanted to marry Princess Kaguya continued to hang around Princess Kaguya's house. One by one they finally surrendered, and there were only 5 men left, all of whom were princes and high officials.
When night falls, Princess Kaguya's message is conveyed to the five waiting men. Applicants were each asked to bring an impossible item, a Buddhist holy bowl, a gleaming gold-fruited tree branch, the skin of a white rat from a volcanic crater, a dragon pearl, and a, and the glowing shells of the swallow birds. The first applicant brought back an ordinary bowl, the second applicant brought a fake artisan-made item, and the third applicant carried a flammable, ordinary rat skin. All of them were rejected by Princess Kaguya for not carrying the original item. The fourth applicant succumbed to a storm on the way, while the fifth applicant died of a broken waist.
News of this failure was heard all the way to the emperor who became eager to meet Princess Kaguya. The Grandfather of the Bamboo Takers persuaded Princess Kaguya to marry the emperor, but Princess Kaguya refused for various reasons. Princess Kaguya did not even want to show herself in front of the emperor. The Emperor finally decided to give up after exchanging poems with Princess Kaguya.
Princess Kaguya returns to the Moon
Autumn has arrived. Princess Kaguya spent night after night staring at the Moon in tears. When asked why she was crying, Princess Kaguya would not answer. But when the 15th of the 8th month (September) is getting closer, Princess Kaguya's crying becomes more and more. Princess Kaguya finally confessed, "I'm not an earth person, this 15th at the time of the full moon, I have to go back to the Moon." The true identity of Princess Kaguya was conveyed to the emperor. The valiant warriors were sent by the emperor to protect Princess Kaguya from the Moon's invitation.
The night of the full moon came, at about 2 pm, from the sky down the Moon people. The soldiers and the Bamboo Takers Grandfather were unable to prevent them from bringing Princess Kaguya back to the moon. Princess Kaguya is a resident of the moon capital who is serving a banishment sentence to earth. As an eye sign, Princess Kaguya gave the emperor the medicine of eternal life (fushi, never to die). But without Princess Kaguya, the emperor did not feel the need to live forever. He ordered the drug to be burned in Suruga, on top of the highest mountain in Japan. The mountain was later called "Fushi no Yama," and was eventually called "Fujiyama" (Mount Fuji). The drugs that are burned on the mountain reportedly make Mount Fuji always emit smoke until now.
