num_pages: 70
description: "Late one afternoon as the forest grew dim and an early moon appeared, a bamboo cutter noticed a strange stalk of bamboo. It was glowing down near the root, as if there were a candle inside. He was mystified and leaned down to examine it. Inside the hollow bamboo was a tiny girl, no more than three inches tall...."The Tale of the Shining Princess is the story of that tiny girl, Kaguya-hime. Written in the ninth or tenth century in Japan and as a familiar there today "as the bamboo growing before us," this story tells of the gentlemen who come from far and wide to court the beautiful princess and of the impossible tasks she demands of them as proof of their devotion to her.Reproduced from an eighteenth-century Japanese book with exquisite paintings in watercolor, ink, gold, and silver, the illustrations in this edition are printed in five colors plus gold and silver. The original album is in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Based on Donald Keene's translation of the story, this edition includes a note by him on the text and a commentary on the illustrations by Andrew Pekarik.
language: English
title: Tale of the Shining Princess
titlecomplete: Tale of the Shining Princess
genres: Childrens, Classics, Japan, Japanese Literature, Picture Books, Fiction, Fairy Tales, Fantasy, Art
ratings_count: 75
publisher: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Viking Press