A Treasury of Japanese Folktales: Bilingual English and Japanese Edition

by Yuri Yasuda, Yumi Matsunari (Translator), Yumi Yamaguchi (Translator)

A Treasury of Japanese Folktales , presented in both English and Japanese, contains 12 of the best Japanese folk and fairy tales, told to generation after generation of Japanese children. These charming tales of rich imagination carry us, on turtle-back, to the splendors of the underwater palace of the dragon princess, to the beautiful hills where Kintaro plays with his animal friends, and to a temple where we discover a "tea kettle" that is really a cunning badger in disguise.

Executed with great skill and imagination, the 98 color illustrations bring to life the charming characters of these heart-warming tales of old Japan.

Genres: Japan, Folklore, Japanese Literature, Young Adult, Fairy Tales, Mythology, Unfinished

112 pages, Hardcover

First published September 10, 2010

Reviews

[Doskoi_panda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice collection of Japanese fairytales/folklore, nicely illustrated. Stories included are: Shitakiri Suzume (Tongue cut Sparrow); Kintaro (Strong Boy); Nezumi no Yomeiri (Marriage of a Mouse); Urashima Taro (Fisherman and the Tortoise); Kaguya Hime (Luminous Princess); Momotaro (Peach Boy); Kachi Kachi Yama (Kachi Kachi Mountain); Kobutori Jiisan (Old Men with Wens); Hanasaka Jijii (old Man Who Made Trees Blossom); Issunboshi (One Inch Boy); Bunbuku Chagama (Lucky Cauldron); and Sarukani Kassen (Monkey and Crab Fight.) Anyone watching anime, reading manga or reading books by Japanese writers will see correlations to a number of the stories as they are all ingrained in Japanese culture.

The bilingual aspect would be helpful for learners of Japanese - the kanji are marked with their furigana for easier reading, and are generally fairly easy to follow. My only issue would be that I would have preferred a side by side comparison or line by line - as it is, the English is mainly in the upper half of the page, and the Japanese is below in a solid block. I can understand why they would do this - but I think that it would have been better as a side by side/facing page. Other than this small quibble, this is a excellent resource for early students or people interested in learning more about Japan's culture and lore. (As a side note, I finally learned about the little "capes" on some of the religious statues which had stumped me when I visited a few years ago. A mystery solved! Ans.: not capes, bibs put on Ojizo-san, a deity associated with the protection of babies.)

[Alisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book because it's great for bilingual students learning English or Japanese. It has the Japanese version on the bottom and the English translations on top. My mom use to read me some Japanese stories when I was younger and I always loved したきりすずめ or The Tongue-Cut Sparrow. It's about an old man who loves a bird and his jealous greedy wife who apologizes for her behavior at the end. The pictures are small illustrations in the corner because most of the pages are filled with words.