On the Origins of the Taketori Monogatari

April 2006


Credited as Japan’s first romance, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, known traditionally as Taketori Monogatari, is now considered a child’s fairytale. The story tells how an old bamboo cutter finds a tiny child within a bamboo shoot, whom he and his wife raise as their own. In a very short time, the girl, Kaguya-hime, comes into maturity and, after issuing impossible tasks and rejecting many suitors including the Emperor, returns to her home on the moon. The author and origin date are unknown, though many place it as being written during the early to mid Heian period. However, evidence from the Taketori Monogatari does not validate this, instead supporting an early authorship date of the Nara period. Though this discrepancy may seem slight in terms of historical source dating, there are significant differences which distinguish the two periods, giving rise for valid investigation. Evidence in reference to Mount Fuji, connection to the Kojiki and court life of the Nara period supports an earlier authorship of the monogatari than the previously accepted Heian period.

Mount Fuji has been considered a sacred mountain since the beginning of Japanese culture. An active volcano, in 905 A.D it ceased to emit smoke for a time , though the Taketori Monogatari declares that at the time of its authorship “Even now the smoke is still said to rise into the clouds.”  Revered both by the Shinto and Buddhist religions as the holiest of all mountains, it has had many names over the span of its history. Mount Fuji, though, is the only name which seems to have dominated. The Kojiki had been compiled to give legitimacy to the succession lineage; it does not, however, mention the mountain by any name at any point in the records. Reference is made through other means, such as geographic location , but the name Fuji does not appear anywhere in the records. It does, however, appear in a song by Yamabeno Akatito, which appeared in 759 A.D. and from which the mountain was said to be “famous from the song in Man’yoshu” (emphasis added). For Akatito to use the name Fuji though, the mountain must have first been identified as such before, which the Taketori Monogatari does. “Ever since they burnt the elixir of immortality on the summit, people have called the mountain by the name of Fuji, meaning immortal.” Since the monogatari was popular throughout Japanese courts, being called by Murasaki Shikibu the “ancestor of all romances” , the knowledge of the mountain’s name must have reached Akatito, and could only have done so if the Taketori Monogatari, the first source of the name, had been written before 759 A.D. It is therefore impossible for the text to have been written before 759 A.D, placing it within not the Hein but early Nara period.

Completed in 712 A.D, decades after its commission by Emperor Tenmu, the Kojiki is one of “the two most formative works of Japanese historical scholarship”. A compilation of Shinto legends which had been modified to legitimize line of rule, it was taken as historical fact until recently, and is also the first work to mention the name of Kaguya-hime. “Again, wedding Her Augustness Kagu-ya-hime, daughter of King Oho-tsutsuki-tari-ne”. (Emphasis added.) Though many have dismissed Kagu-ya-
hime of the Kojiki and Kaguya-hime of the Taketori Monogatari as two different people, there is evidence to suggest otherwise. The Kagu-ya-hime of the Kojiki is the daughter of a Heavenly Ruler, a prince, making her a Heavenly princess. The Kojiki tells of constant warfare between the Heavenly, or Celestial people, punishment for bad deeds and rewards for good deeds. The Taketori Monogatari likewise, describes Kaguya-hime to be “from the Palace of the Moon [Heavenslildevil]” who had come “to this world because of an obligation incurred from a former life”. Her father was a king and some translations read that she had been sent to earth for a sin committed in the past, or as protection during the Celestial War. Either translation can still find support in the Kojiki, as it recites temporary exile as a form of punishment, as well as celestial warfare. Though the Kagu-ya-hime of the Kojiki married and had children and the other did not, the Taketori Monogatari does mention that the punishment was for a sin committed in a previous life. It is very probable that, despite common belief, the two Kaguya-himes are the same person, just within a different lifetime, and is a creditable assumption since reincarnation is a strong belief in both Shinto and Buddhist religions since earliest times. From prehistory to modern times, there are many poems, folktales and stories of people, Celestial maidens and gods/goddesses who were reincarnated to fulfill a task/goal/destiny, to gain revenge and/or retribution, as a reward or as punishment. This would support the Taketori Monogatari as being written closer to the completion of the Kojiki in 712, rather than later in the Heian period, largely due to the rarity of the name’s use in the Kojiki. Kagu-ya-hime is mentioned only twice in the entire record, and both times in only a sentence or two in passing. Having proven that the two Kaguya-himes could be the same person due to their numerous similarities, and having nothing to distinguish the character apart from any other, the two works would have had to have been written close in proximity for the name and characteristics to be utilized before fading into the pantheon of numerous other celestial ancestors. Thus, authorship must have taken place during the Nara Period.

Nara court life supports this authorship period over that of the Heian period. The Man’yoshu is a collection of over 1,000 works, most of which are anonymous, as is the Taketori Monogatari. All of the Man’yoshu works were written during the Nara period, some even before. “The Collection contains many poems from much earlier, many of them anonymous . . . but the bulk of the collection represents the period between 600 and 759 A.D” . Poetry of the Asuka and Nara periods are largely forms of self-expression, serving for personal, aesthetic and courting purposes . During the Heian period, however, poetry and other works were written “partly as recreation or act of self-expression, but more importantly as means of promoting one’s career, countering one’s rivals, and advancing family or factional interests.” Many
“prose works such as Taketori Monogatari . . . were written in Kana . . . . It is noteworthy that . . . most of the works in Kana, especially the representative stories . . . such as Taketori Monogatari . . . are now judged from their style to have been written by male authors”, 
though the story was clearly written a romance directed toward women. Though women were unable to read or write in Kanji, which was the most common form of writing for men, a simpler writing system was beginning to take precedent in everyday life during the late Asuka and early Nara period. An early Kana system, called Hiragana, was gaining popularity and taught to upper-court women at the time, allowing them to become literate. It then makes sense then, that the Taketori Monogatari would be directed at women since it was written in a form which would be legible to them. Being written anonymously, and therefore without the intention of personal promotion (save by the person(s), mostly likely female, it was written for), and containing clear aesthetic and personal value rather than political value, the Taketori Monogatari exhibits characteristics of Nara period literary works rather than that of Heian period works.

 Due to the complexity of the Japanese language, and the significance of certain words which may be lost in translation, it may be very difficult to correctly date the Taketori Monogatari. However, given hints from the translations available, it is possible to date the authorship period within a few decades, and rule out periods which evidence does not support. As demonstrated through the references to Mount Fuji, the connection to the Kojiki and court life of the period, the Taketori Monogatari exhibits stronger evidence for authorship within the Nara period than for the previously accepted Heian period.

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