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The Shining Stalk

Long ago, in a time when the world was quiet and the mountains were draped in silver mist, there lived an old man named Sanuki no Miyatsuko. He was a simple bamboo cutter who spent his days among the rustling stalks, harvesting the tall grasses to craft baskets and mats. He lived a humble life with his wife in a small hut at the edge of the forest, and though they were kind of heart, they were lonely, for they had no children to brighten their twilight years.

One evening, as the sun dipped behind the jagged peaks and the shadows stretched long across the valley, the old man noticed a peculiar glow emanating from the thicket. Deep within a stand of green bamboo, a single stalk pulsed with a soft, ethereal light. It was a luminescence that did not flicker like a candle but radiated with the steady clarity of a star. Curious and trembling, the old man approached. With a careful stroke of his knife, he split the shining stalk open.

There, nestled within the hollow of the wood, sat a tiny child. She was no more than three inches tall, yet she was perfectly formed and shone with the same radiant light that had drawn him to the grove. Her beauty was so profound that the old man felt his breath catch in his throat. He took her gently into the palm of his hand and carried her home to his wife. They marveled at the tiny creature, seeing her as a gift from the heavens, and decided to raise her as their own daughter. They placed her in a small basket, lining it with the softest silk, and tended to her with a love that knew no bounds.

A House of Gold

Following the discovery of the child, a series of miracles began to transform the lives of the elderly couple. Each time the old man went into the forest to cut bamboo, he found that the stalks contained small nuggets of gold. Day after day, the forest yielded its riches, and soon the bamboo cutter and his wife became wealthy. They moved from their humble hut into a grand estate with sweeping roofs and polished floors, surrounded by gardens where the plum blossoms seemed to bloom with unnatural vibrancy.

The child herself grew at a pace that defied the laws of nature. In just three months, she reached the height and appearance of a grown woman. Her beauty was so radiant that it seemed to illuminate every room she entered, chasing away the darkness of even the gloomiest corners. She was given the name Nayotake-no-Kaguya-hime-The Radiant Princess of the Supple Bamboo. The old couple kept her hidden away, fearing that such celestial beauty would be too much for the world to witness, but rumors of the princess who shone like the moon could not be contained.

The Five Suitors

The fame of Kaguya-hime spread across the land like the scent of spring flowers. Men from every province dreamed of her, and soon the gates of the old man’s estate were crowded with suitors. Among them were five noble princes, each high in rank and determined to win her hand. They stood outside the walls through rain and wind, sending letters and poems to express their devotion. The old bamboo cutter, concerned for her future, urged Kaguya-hime to choose one of them, for he was aging and wished to see her protected.

Kaguya-hime, however, felt no desire to marry. She looked upon the world with a gentle but distant melancholy. Seeing her father’s distress, she finally agreed to see the suitors, but only if they could prove the sincerity of their love. She assigned to each prince a task-an impossible quest to retrieve a legendary treasure from the far reaches of the earth and the heavens. Only the one who returned with the true artifact would be worthy of her hand.

The Failed Quests

The first suitor, Prince Ishizukuri, was commanded to bring the stone begging bowl of the Buddha from India. Knowing the journey was treacherous, he instead spent three years in hiding and returned with a common stone bowl from a local temple, darkened by soot to make it look ancient. When he presented it to Kaguya-hime, the bowl failed to emit the holy light she expected. Seeing through the deception, she returned it with a cold poem of rejection.

The second, Prince Kuramochi, was tasked with finding a branch from the jeweled tree on the mythical mountain of Horai. He hired the most skilled jewelers in the kingdom to forge a branch of white jade and golden fruit. The craftsmanship was so exquisite that it nearly fooled the princess, but just as he presented it, the jewelers arrived at the estate to demand payment for their work. The fraud was exposed, and the prince fled in shame.

The third suitor, the Right Minister Abe, was told to find the robe made of the fur of the fire-rat, said to be unburnable. He paid a vast fortune to a merchant for a shimmering garment of deep red. To test its authenticity, Kaguya-hime cast the robe into a fire. Instead of remaining unharmed, the silk vanished into flames and smoke, leaving the Minister humiliated.

The fourth, Grand Counselor Otomo, sought the jewel from the neck of a dragon. He set sail with a crew, but a violent storm arose, and the counselor grew so terrified of the dragon’s wrath that he abandoned the search, his health broken by the sea. The fifth, Middle Counselor Isonokami, attempted to find a cowry shell born from a swallow. In his desperate climb to reach a swallow’s nest, he fell from the height and suffered a grievous injury, eventually dying of the shame of his failure. One by one, the suitors fell away, and Kaguya-hime remained alone in her garden.

The Emperor’s Shadow

Word of the princess’s beauty and the failure of the five princes eventually reached the ears of the Emperor. Intrigued, he traveled to the bamboo cutter’s estate to see her for himself. When he caught a glimpse of her, he was instantly struck by a longing unlike any he had ever known. He did not demand she come to his palace as a servant or a wife, but instead, they began a long correspondence. Over the years, they exchanged many poems, their words flying back and forth like birds between the palace and the bamboo grove.

Despite this friendship, Kaguya-hime grew increasingly sorrowful. As the nights grew longer and the moon waxed full, she would spend hours gazing at the silver orb in the sky, her eyes brimming with tears. When her foster parents asked what troubled her, she initially remained silent. Finally, as the harvest moon approached, she confessed the truth. She was not a being of this world. She was a daughter of the Moon, sent to earth for a time, and now her people were coming to take her back to the Capital of the Moon.

The Flight to the Heavens

The old bamboo cutter was devastated. He begged the Emperor for help, and the Emperor sent two thousand archers to guard the estate, lining the roofs and the gardens with bows drawn. They were determined to prevent the celestial host from taking the princess. Kaguya-hime sat in the innermost room, her parents clinging to her, but she told them that no human weapon could stop the people of the Moon.

On the night of the full moon, a brilliant light descended from the sky. A celestial chariot, pulled by winged beings and surrounded by a heavenly retinue, floated down upon a cloud. The guards found their limbs frozen; they could not let fly a single arrow. The doors of the house swung open of their own accord. A magnificent being, the King of the Moon, called to Kaguya-hime. He brought with him a celestial robe of feathers and a small vial containing the elixir of immortality.

Before she departed, Kaguya-hime wrote a final letter to the Emperor and gave a portion of the elixir to her foster parents, though they were too heartbroken to take it. As the celestial robe was draped over her shoulders, all her memories of earth, her love for her parents, and her sorrow began to fade. The robe stripped away human emotion, leaving her as pure and distant as the moon itself. She stepped into the chariot and ascended into the night sky, leaving behind a world of shadow and loss.

The Eternal Smoke

The Emperor received Kaguya-hime’s final letter and the remaining elixir of immortality. He read her words with a heavy heart, realizing that without her, eternal life held no meaning. He asked his advisors which mountain was closest to the heavens, and they told him of a great peak in the province of Suruga. The Emperor commanded that the letter and the elixir be taken to the very summit of that mountain and burned, so that the smoke might reach the princess in the lunar capital.

The messengers climbed to the highest point and set the fire as commanded. It is said that the smoke from that fire never ceased, rising forever toward the sky. The mountain came to be known as the mountain of immortality, or Fuji, and even now, the white smoke is said to drift from its peak, a silent message trailing into the heavens where the radiant princess dwells, forever out of reach.

Further Readings:

The Riverside Counselor’s Stories; The Kojiki; Traditional Japanese Folktales by Richard Gordon Smith.

Sources:

The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (Taketori Monogatari), 10th Century Japanese Narrative.

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