Episode 368 - The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter

History of Japan

Isaac Meyer

Japan, History, Japanese

4.8 • 744 Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2020

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, we're talking about one of the most famous stories in Japanese history: the bamboo princess Naotake no Kaguyahime and her absolute wrecking ball-esque demolition of Japan's stupidest and most eligible bachelors before she returns back to her home on the moon.

Who says classical literature isn't fun?

Show notes here.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This week's episode is brought to you by Audible.
0:04.3	Audible has over 425,000 titles to choose from, all compatible with iPhone, Android,
0:11.5	Kindle, or your MP3 player of choice.
0:15.0	For listeners of the show, Audible is offering a free 30-day trial membership, complete with credit,
0:20.1	for a free audiobook of your choice.
0:22.4	You can cancel any time and keep the free book or keep going with one of Audible's subscription offers.
0:28.7	Go to audibletrial.com slash Japan to claim your offer.
0:33.6	This week, I'm going to recommend The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien.
0:39.3	Look, I'll be honest. I don't know what I can really say that would sell someone on the Lord of the Rings trilogy at this point.
0:46.1	Either you've read it, or you haven't, and if you haven't, honestly, I actually think the style is better suited to an audiobook in a certain sense than it is to
0:54.6	being read in the traditional sense. So give it a go at audible trial.com slash Japan.
1:22.6	I'm Hello and welcome to the history of Japan podcast, episode 368, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter.
1:29.3	Every culture has stories, I think, that become deeply ingrained into its cultural fabric. Maybe you haven't read them, maybe you only know the name, but even if you don't realize it,
1:34.3	the story continues to influence tales told down to today.
1:38.3	For example, in the American and British literary traditions, we can look to something like Beowulf,
1:43.3	which usually is only taught in college literary courses, we can look to something like Beowulf, which usually is only
1:45.1	taught in college literary courses, but which fundamentally shaped huge swaths of literature,
1:50.7	particularly the genre of fantasy as we know it, by way of J.R.R.R. Tolkien, who was a big Beowulf fan.
1:57.1	Or, say, the Divine Comedy, which is also rarely read day to day, but which did a lot to shape
2:03.0	Western conceptions of what hell, or, for that matter, heaven, looks like.
2:08.0	Today we're going to talk about another story with that kind of reach.
2:12.2	It, like Beowulf or the Divine Comedy, is still definitely taught in specialist courses on Japanese literature,
	...

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