Japanese Fairy Tales

About the book

Ozaki gathers stories including Urashima Taro, Momotaro, the tongue-cut sparrow, and the bamboo-cutter and moon-child. Journeys, gifts, promises, and acts of kindness repeatedly connect human households with beings whose powers exceed ordinary expectations. Some tales are playful, while others turn separation or the passage of time into a source of lasting sadness. The preface explains that these are adaptations intended for young Western readers rather than literal translations for specialist study. That declared audience helps readers understand the collection's explanatory voice and arrangement. The final selection also includes a story identified as Chinese. Taken together, the narratives offer a varied literary introduction to the tales as Ozaki presents them, with particular pleasures in their abrupt changes of scale and possibility.

• Kindness and consequence
• Magical journeys
• Time and separation

Why read it

For memorable tales whose marvellous encounters range from comic ingenuity to deeply affecting experiences of loss.

English adaptations compiled by Yei Theodora Ozaki