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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Formerly there lived an old man, a bamboo-hewer, who hewed bamboos on the bosky hill-side, and manywise he wrought them to serve men's needs, and his name was Sanugi no Miyakko. Now one day, while plying the hatchet in a grove of bamboos, was he suddenly ware of a tall stem, whence streamed forth through the gloom a dazzling light. Much marvelling, he drew nigh to the reed, and saw that the glory proceeded from the heart thereof, and he looked again and beheld a tiny creature, a palm's breadth in stature and of rare loveliness, which stood midmost the splendour. Then he said to himself, “ Day after day, from dawn to dusk, toil I among these bamboo-reeds, and this child that abides amidst them I may surely claim as mine own.” So he put forth his hand, and took the tiny being, and carried it home, and gave it to the goodwife and her women to be nourished. And passing fair was the child, but so frail and tender that it was needful to place it in a basket to be reared. But after lighting upon this gift whilst hewing bamboos, he ceased not from his daily toil, and night after night, as he shore through the reeds and opened their internodes, came he upon one filled with grain of gold, and so, ere long, he amassed great wealth. Meanwhile the child, being duly tended, grew daily in stature, and after three months—wonderful to relate!—her stature was as that of a maiden of full years.
page 1 note 1 Mukashi— here, as often, equivalent to the Latin ‘olim.’
page 1 note 2 Or Saruki, or Sadaki. Sanugi, or Sanuki, is a province of Shikoku. Miyakko is miya-tsu-ho, servant of the August Home, that is, of the Court or Palace, equivalent to ason (asomi, asobi) or Baron. The expression was also used in the sense of ‘ruler,’ ‘governor.’ But, like many other titles, it degenerated, as here, into a mere name.
page 2 note 1 Anciently the hair was allowed to fall in long tresses on either shoulder. At the age of 13 or 14 these were brought up and fastened in a sort of knot on the crown or side of the head. The custom is alluded to in a “tanka” of the Manyōshu (The Myriad Leaves—an Anthology of the tenth century):
page 2 note 2 Hung before the toko, or alcove, or upper end of the house-place. The meaning is that she remained within her mother's care, unbetrothed and unmarried.
page 2 note 3 Mimurodo means the place of three caves, alluding, perhaps, to the aboriginal habit (still practised in Yezo) of living in caves or half-underground huts. It is sometimes written mimoro, which has the signification of a sacred (mi) place. Imube (imbe or imibe) were originally the hereditary builders of Shinto shrines. In certain provinces—Sanuki was one—the designation became a family-name. Mr. Satow explains it as signifying an association (me or be) eschewing (imi) uncleanness. Akita is the Field of Autumn, more strictly the laboured field made the ready in late autumn for the rice-sowing. It is a not uncommon place-name. The whole subject of Japanese place, family, and personal names awaits investigation. Kaguya is often written 
‘illumer of darkness,’ hence, perhaps, the present legend. On the other hand, it may, and probably did originally, mean simply the Princess or Goddess (hi me, i.e. glorious lady) of Kaguyama, or Kagoyama (deer-hill, as Kagoshima is deer-island), the ya being an emphatic suffix. Kaguyama is the subject of an oft-quoted stanza, said to have been composed by the Emperor Jitō (A.D. 690–696) on beholding the mountain bathed in a flood of summer sunlight (some say moonlight):
page 3 note 1 Such appears to be the meaning of the text, here probably corrupt. The original is otoko ōna kirawazu yobitsudoyete īto kashikoku asobu, which the commentary thus explains, otoko onna no hirai nahu nigiwashiku yobitsudoyetaru nari. Another reading is otoko wa ukekirawazu yo hi hodoyete, etc.
page 3 note 2 Which was contrary to good manners, and so a proof of the intensity of their love.
page 4 note 1 These names, at least such as require it, will be explained below.
page 4 note 2 Minazuki, i.e. Kami-nashi-tsuki, part of July and August under the old calendar. The name signifies “godless month,” because during it all the gods were believed to be absent from the world holding council in the bed of the Stream of Heaven (the Milky Way), to determine the fortunes of men during the ensuing year. This legend is of Chinese origin, as indeed are most Japanese legends in a greater or less degree, and embodies, perhaps, some memory of the time when the ancestors of the Chinese dwelt about the sources of the Yellow River, which was supposed to be the continuation on earth of the Stream of Heaven.
page 5 note 1 Or “my child, my Buddha,” i.e. “my darling.”
page 6 note 1 The Japanese form of the Chinese Buddhist name for Northern India, said to be a corruption of “Shintuh,” or the Chinese form of the name now known as Scinde.
page 7 note 1 Ishizukuri no miko. Miko is noble (mi) child (ko), originally a prince of the blood royal. Ishizukuri (tsukuri) may mean ‘stone-built,’ or, in a bad sense, ‘stone-counterfeit.’ Sei-yō zukuri is still a common expression for ‘western-fashioned.’
page 8 note 1 Pindola, the Succourer in Sickness, one of the sixteen Rakan. In the Butsuzō-zui this Arhat (Rakan) is the first enumerated, and is called Hatsura tasha. He is represented as an old man seated by the edge of a precipice overlooking the sea, and holding in hia right hand a feather-brush (?) to keep off flies, in his left a scroll (or tablet?) of the law.
page 8 note 2 It was a pretty custom in Old Japan to accompany a gift with a branch of peach or plum or wild cherry in full bloom.
page 8 note 3 The last two lines, by a word-play, may be read ishi no wa chi no namida nagare wa? which would mean ‘of a truth this stone hath been the bed of a stream of tears of blood.’ In winter, when the rivers in Japan are at their driest, the stony central portion of the broad river-bed is laid bare, along which flows the diminished stream.
page 8 note 4 The intrinsic splendour of a true relic of the Buddha is meant.
page 9 note 1 Situate in the district in which the Bowl had been found. In gura (kura with nigori) is involved the sense of darkness (kurashi), though the character U8ed in writing the name means “granary.” So in a tanka (ode) of the Manyōshu;—
page 9 note 2 Shirayama is said to be opposite in situation as in the meaning involved in its name (originally, no doubt, Shiroyama or Castle Hill, but corrupted into Shirayama or White Hill), to Ogurayama. The intrinsic brilliance of the Bowl was lost in that of the Lady's beauty, if it were cast aside out of her presence its sheen would become visible.
page 9 note 3 Hachi, bowl, by nigori becomes haji, shame; hence the word-play, conveying a sense of the shame which attends the defeat of a tricky and dishonest scheme.
page 10 note 1 This seems to be the general sense of an obscure and probably corrupt passage— shirasetamaitaru kagiri jiuroku so wo (o?) kami ni kudo wo akete, etc. I have followed the hints given in the commentary of Ohide. Perhaps the passage ought to read, jiuroku sho (so) no kami no kura, etc. Another commentator suggests that So o kami is the county of Sōkami, and retains kudo, furnace, the reference then being to sixteen furnaces or pottery ovens in Sōkami. But this interpretation seems far-fetched. Possibly a sort of pun is intended on the Prince's name, Kuramochi, which really meaning (Kuruma-mochi), “guardian or keeper of the Mikado's carriages,” may also be read as signifying “superintendent of the Royal treasuries or granaries.”
page 11 note 1 The Buddhist Udumbara; the fig-tree (Ficus glomerata), believed to flower once only in three thousand years, hence the expression is used in respect of anything very rare and marvellous.
page 13 note 1 See below.
page 14 note 1 Chigusa, thousand herbs—an expression signifying a thousand kinds, or the innumerable, that is, all kinds and varieties of wretchedness.
page 16 note 1 An expression which may by taken to mean either, “blooming with jewels,” or “preciously blooming,” or again, tamashii-zakaru, “to have one's wits gone a wool-gathering.”
page 16 note 2 Sadaijin, Left Great Minister, next in rank to the Daijōdaijin or Premier.
page 16 note 3 In some texts Abe no Mimuraji. Mi-muraji is Great Chieftain, see Mr. Chamberlain's translation of the Kojiki.
page 16 note 4 An invented name. The characters are 
.
page 16 note 5 A common designation of China, even up to recent times. Its derivation is uncertain.
page 16 note 6 Hi-nezumi. Nezumi (root-gnawer or perhaps rice (ine) gnawer) is a generic name for Rodents. In the legend is doubtless involved an allusion to the asbestos, cloth mentioned in Colonel Yule's admirable work on Marco Polo, as a product of the country lying north of China proper.
page 16 note 7 Probably to Hakata in Chikuzen, a favourite resort of Chinese traders in early times.
page 17 note 1 The distance is described as more than 900 ri (the Chinese li are meant) by the land route.
page 17 note 2 Liang or taels, greatly exceeding in purchasing value, but to an extent not now definitely ascertainable, the tael or riyō of the present day.
page 17 note 3 In the Commentary ruri is said to be a kind of precious stone that stands the fire, ten kinds of which are found within the famous 
Ta Ts'in country, supposed by some to be the Roman Empire, by others the countries lying west of China. Possibly varieties of turquoise or lapis lazuli are covered by the name. It has also been identified with the emerald, and Dr. Williams says it is the Sanskrit Vaidurya, which appears to be a sort of lapis lazuli.
page 17 note 4 
. Probably a brilliant (lit. golden) shade of blue is meant. The Commentary explains the tint as superior to that of the sky 
.
page 18 note 1 More literally, taking the greatest pains with his personal appearance, as if he was going to a Court Levee—on mi no kesō (keshō) ito itaku shite.
page 19 note 1 There is a word-play here on the i (hi) of omoi, hi meaning ‘flame.’
page 19 note 2 Ahenashi (ayenashi), with nigori, abenashi. Ayenashi 
is a locution used of a bootless undertaking, something feeble, awkward and unsuccessful.
page 19 note 3 Dainagon, Great Councillor, next in rank to the Udaijin, or Right Great Minister, who followed the Sadaijin.
page 19 note 4 Ōtomo seems to mean many multitudes or companies of men. Miyuki—the personal name—is homophonous with the word signifying a Royal Progress or Promenade.
page 20 note 1 That is, in none of the Sankoku (three countries, Japan, India, and China), of which, in imitation of the Chinese Sankwoh, the civilized world was supposed to consist.
page 20 note 2 In some provinces, says the Commentary, the rivers, roaring down the narrow valleys to the sea during the heavy rains, are supposed to be changed into this particular form of Dragon, which has been seen to lift itself from the seasurface towards a descending cloud—an interpretation doubtless of the phenomena attending the formation of a waterspout.
page 24 note 1 Sumomo. Chinese 
opposed to the 
, the peach, symbol of beauty and plumpness.
page 24 note 2 Tayegata (tahegata) means ‘insupportable’ but with nigori (tabegata), uneatable. The Dainagon had got his eyeballs swollen like sloes, and these were uneatable fruits, for his pains.
page 27 note 1 Here Chief of the Mikado's Retinue:—it was, however, merely an honorary, not a real appointment.
page 28 note 1 “Go henji sasuga ni nikukarazu kikoyekawashitamaite.”
page 28 note 2 The fifth quest—that of the Lord of Iso—is omitted, principally on account of its triviality and lack of interest. A brief account of it will be found in the concluding portion of this article.
page 29 note 1 After the 21st day of the month, explains the Commentary.
page 30 note 1 He has previously been described as a man of seventy. The Commentary treats the question with befitting gravity in a long note.
page 34 note 1 An euphemistic phrase hinting at her longing to remain with her father till death took him, and her fate could no longer grieve him.
page 36 note 1 One among the many ways of writing Fuji (Fuaiyama) was 
, Immortal.
page 37 note 1 This extraordinary farrago of feeble and often filthy myths and legends has had the good fortune to meet with so able a translator as Mr. B. H. Chamberlain. Trivial, even childish, as the collection is, it is interesting as furnishing striking instances of what myths in their crude beginnings really were. In addition, the traits of a fairly ample picture of the social life of the unsinicized Japanese may be gathered from it, and the songs it contains, though devoid of literary value, have considerable philological interest. Mr. Chamberlain has enriched his version with notes and commentaries that constitute an invaluable aid to the study of the origins of Dai Nippon.
page 37 note 2 Many chapters of this history of a Japanese Don Juan have been recently translated by Mr. Suyematsu.
page 38 note 1 The Chiunagon Marotada has to present the Lady with a Cowry shell (Koyasugai) brought by a swallow, tsubahurame, probably the Hirundo gutturalis, Scop., which, according to Messrs. Blakiston and Pryer, nests always in a house, where a shelf is provided for its accommodation. He has recourse to his retainers, who devise various schemes, more or less trivial and ridiculous, in pursuance of one of which the Chiunagon endeavours to catch a swallow sitting upon its nest and in the act of wagging its tail. Thus far he is successful, but only to be rewarded by a ball of dung, which he grasps firmly in his hand, believing he has obtained the much-desired prize. In being lowered from his post of observation, to which he had been raised in a sort of basket attached by a rope, he meets with a mishap, and falls into a rice cauldron, from which his retainers drag him out still grasping his supposed prize—the nature of which he then, to his stupefaction, discovers.
The Koyasugai is described in the Wakan sanzai as the shell currency of ancient China. The word is often written 
, under a false notion of its etymology—probably Koyasu is a strengthened form of the root Koye, to bring over, import, etc.
page 39 note 1 An Italian version of the Taketori has been made by M. Severini, which I cannot greatly praise. It has also been translated into German, and through German into English. Of these latter versions I have seen neither. The present is, I believe, the first direct translation into English that has been produced, and the only one based on Daishu's text, or annotated with any approach to adequacy.
page 39 note 3 On this peculiar feature of Turanian languages the reader is referred to some excellent observations by Mr. Lowell in his Chosön or Land of Morning Calm (Korea). Mr. Aston, too, has some admirable remarks on the subject in a paper on the Korean and Japanese languages, which will be found in Vol. XI Part III. of this Journal.
page 40 note 1 The Chinese Oread (
), Si Wang Mu, the Western Eoyal Mother, who on Mount Kwenlun rules over thousands of Taoist genii. A peach-tree growing within her domain on the borders of the Gem Lake (
) bears fruits which confer immortality upon those who are allowed by the Mother to partake of them. Kwenlun is by some identified with the range of mountains known as the Hindu Kush (see Mayers' Chinese Readers' Manual, p. 108), and the legend is evidently in great part of Indian origin.
page 41 note 1 Not to be confounded with the Japanese Meichō 
.
page 42 note 1 See Mayers, op. cit., Nos, 559 and 647. Compare also the description of Amida's Paradise in Prof. Max Müller's translation of the text of the Sukhavati brought from Japan, Part II. Vol. XII. of this Journal.
page 42 note 2 Kaguya, for instance, is the name of a princess who is mentioned in the history of the Mikado Suinin (B.C. 70–A.D. 70), and one of her five lovers is, I believe, called Ōtomo no Miyuki (see the third Quest).
page 42 note 3 An account of this work will, I believe, be found in the American Cyclopædia, from the pen of Mr. Satow.
page 45 note 1 The Kojiki, Nihongi, etc. are written in a style which is a bad imitation of Chinese.
page 46 note 1 Shiru sometimes, as here, means to exercise power, have rights over, etc.
page 46 note 2 omina, onna.
page 46 note 3 hako or kago.
page 46 note 4 Sa-u-shite (
) sōshite, sōsolcu (sōzoki?).
page 46 note 5 
.
page 46 note 6 
kichō.
page 46 note 7 Kesō.
page 46 note 8 
Most editions omit the sentence beginning with ikioi.
page 47 note 1 negai. The words from omoi to suredomo are omitted in other editions.
page 47 note 2 i.e. kakute.
page 47 note 3 Perhaps imazu is a form of ima zo.
page 47 note 4 
.
page 47 note 5 The subject of notamō is the Lady Kaguya.
page 47 note 6 This very complicated sentence is a good example of the loose style of composition common among Japanese writers. The whole passage is corrupt; another rendering is to mōshi mo kotowari nari, izure mo otori masari owashimaseneba mi kokorozashi no wa mitamōbeshi tuskōkomatsuran koto wa sore ni namu sadamubeki to iyeba.…
page 48 note 1 The word be has a collective force. Compare Imibe, etc. Kamudachi is equivalent to kami- or kimi-taehi.
page 48 note 2 Of ichi no takumi a variant is hitotsu no takara.
page 52 note 1 i.e. sa aru.
page 58 note 1 Also aru naru yama.