Hard but hardly useful? As a master student of Japanese Studies, I am obliged to concern myself not only with modern popular culture and anime but also with the subject of Premodern Japanese. To be precise, I’m learning to read texts from the Edo period and older which use bungo, or premodern grammar. I’m also…
Category: Folklore and Urban Legends
Crackling Mountain: The Story of the Farmer and the Tanuki
Below is one version of one of the most popular tanuki stories in Japan. The translation dates to the early 1900s. During this time, the character for tanuki was translated as badger. If you want to learn more about tanuki, check out my ebook, Tanuki: The Folklore of Japan’s Trickster Long, long ago, there lived…
How a Man Got the Better of Two Foxes
This story comes from the Ainu, a group of people native to the northern islands of Japan. The Japanese fox, called kitsune, comes from China, but long before the Chinese fox crossed into Japan, the Ainu told stories like the one below. If you want to learn more about kitsune and read more stories like…
Wanyûdô, The Wheel Monk
Jasmin Boehm writes about an encounter with one of Japan’s ancient haunters, the Wheel Monk. This story won our Japanese Fairy Tale Contest. She won the book Yokai Attack! The Japanese Monster Survival Guide. It is a strange event that I will tell you of, a moments when I was brushed by the shadow of…
Legend of the Twin Baku
David L. Simon accounts a tale of brothers who ate dreams. This story won our Japanese Fairy Tale Contest. He won the book Yokai Attack! The Japanese Monster Survival Guide. You can find more of his work on DeviantArt. Long ago, before the gods had split the world into many lands, there lived twin Baku…
The Princess and the Fox
Edward C. Price won Honorable Mention during our Japanese Fairy Tale Contest. Once upon many years ago, in the far islands of Japan, a princess was born. Daughter of a brute but very wealthy man, she lived a noble life of seclusion. The princess was raised for the next fourteen years within the best possible…