Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Old Bamboo-Hewer's Story (Taketori Monogatari): The Earliest of the Japanese Romances, Written in the Tenth Century
Formerly1 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.2 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.
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