The Tale of Princess Kaguya: Japan's Oldest Fairy Tale in Japanese and English

One of the great works of early literature--a fantastical tale of beauty, intrigue, lust and salvation.

The Tale of Princess Kaguya is Japan's oldest surviving prose narrative and one of its most famous literary works. Familiar to every Japanese child, the story, also called The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, tells of a tiny otherworldly girl found inside a bamboo stalk, whose beauty captivates emperors and commoners alike.

Blending folklore, romance and mythology, the tale explores timeless themes of greed, lust and loss. Beneath its surface lies a strikingly modern current of female empowerment, as its heroine quietly resists the desires and demands of a world that seeks to possess her.

This definitive edition presents the original text alongside an engaging English translation by Matthew Stavros that highlights the poetry and biting wit of the tale. Insightful commentary, illustrations and superb scholarship make this a book that will appeal to every lover of Japanese language, culture and literature.

Author: Matthew Stavros
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
Published: 09/22/2026
Pages: 208
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 8.10h x 5.30w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9784805320358

About the Author
Matthew Stavros is an historian of early Japan at the University of Sydney and a translator of Classical Japanese literature. He is the author of Kyoto: An Urban History of Japan's Premodern Capital (University of Hawaii Press, 2014) and the translator of Hojoki: A Buddhist Reflection on Solitude, Imperfection and Transcendence (Tuttle, 2024). His research focuses on the material culture of premodern Japan and eastern Asia, with particular interest in cities, buildings and religious monuments. He trained in architectural and urban history at Kyoto University and read history at Princeton University where he earned a PhD. He teaches modern and classical Japanese language, Japanese history and historiography, and more broadly on the histories and cultures of East and Southeast Asia. You can find out more at www.mstavros.com

Reginald Jackson is a multidisciplinary artist and scholar of Japanese arts traditions. He has held faculty positions at Yale University, University of Chicago, and served as the Mary Griggs Burke Endowed Chair of Asian Studies at the University of Minnesota before retiring from the University of Michigan as professor of pre-modern Japanese literature and performance. He holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University and is the author of Textures of Mourning: Calligraphy, Mortality, and the Tale of Genji Scrolls and A Proximate Remove: Queering Intimacy and Loss in The Tale of Genji. You can find his work at www.rjacksonartwork.com