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Japanese folktales

Princess Kaguya rising toward the moon as her parents watch among bamboo trees in a Japanese folktale scene

The Tale of Princess Kaguya

Long ago, during the graceful age of the Heian court, there lived an old bamboo cutter named Taketori no Okina and his gentle wife. They lived quietly at the edge of a bamboo grove, earning their living by cutting and crafting bamboo into simple objects. Their days were peaceful but tinged with sadness, for they had no child to brighten
A floating lantern spirit guides ancestral souls across a river during the Obon festival at nigh

The Lantern Ghost of Obon

As summer reached its height and the cicadas sang endlessly in the trees, the villages of Japan prepared for Obon, the sacred season when the spirits of ancestors were believed to return to the world of the living. Houses were cleaned with care, family altars were refreshed with flowers and
Sun goddess Amaterasu emerges from a cave as gods dance around her and a bronze mirror reflects her radiant image, illuminating the land

The Mirror of Amaterasu’s Cave

In the age before the sun shone freely across the heavens, the world had fallen into a deep shadow. Amaterasu, the radiant sun goddess, had withdrawn into a celestial cave, leaving the land and its people in darkness. Her anger and sorrow were profound. The gods had quarreled among themselves,

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