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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Exploring the Japanese people through Fairy Tales, June 29, 2007
This review is from: Japanese Psyche: Major Motifs in the Fairy Tales of Japan (Paperback)
Much of a culture's beliefs and character are expressed in its fairy tales. They are the stories everyone learns from childhood, and the motifs teach children society's moral code in easily understandable and enjoyable parables. We can all remember the legends, the handsome princes and beautiful princess, the monsters and heroes.
For most Westerners, Japan's fairy tales, called mukashibanashi or "Tales of Long Ago", are entirely perplexing. They don't end the way we think they should, the morals are not easy to understand, and the characters behave in a bizarre fashion. Often, the moral of the story seems to be "don't look in the box". In fact, "don't look in the box" is the first theme discussed in Hayao Kawai's "The Japanese Psyche: Major Motifs in the Fairy Tales from Japan".
All in all there are nine individual themes in Japanese fairy tales identified by Kawai. For each one, she discusses the ramifications of the theme, and presents several stories that exemplify the theme. The themes are along the lines of "The Laughter of an Oni" and "The Woman of Endurance", using exploring an archetypal and reoccurring character of myth.
She often compares them with Western fairy tales, especially the rarity of a Japanese fairy tale ending with a wedding, as so many Western tales do. It is also interesting how the majority of major characters in Japanese fairy tales are women, with men playing a smaller role. This is a great contrast to Japanese society itself, and is an interesting topic of discussion.
This is a serious academic study, including graphs and charts, and isn't really a good book if you just want to read some cool fairy tales. It is an excellent resource, however, for those looking to explore Japanese fairy tales on a deeper level. I am very happy that this book was translated.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Intelligent, thoughtful critique of Japanese fairy tale archetypes, June 20, 2006
This review is from: Japanese Psyche: Major Motifs in the Fairy Tales of Japan (Paperback)
This translation, introduced by poet Gary Snyder, offers fantastic insights into Japanese culture as informed by Japanese myth and fairy tale. Ferociously intelligent, Hayao Kawai discusses the impact of ancient religion and the female-centered nature of many Japanese tales - figures such as the disappearing woman, the changeling wife, and the self-sacrificing older sister - will intrigue anyone who has wished to understand the phenomenon of strong female-centric anime or Manga, for instance, in a culture that has often been described as opressively patriarchal by those outside looking in. Also includes several translated versions of hard-to-find Japanese fairy tales.
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A Disappointment, January 7, 2009
This review is from: Japanese Psyche: Major Motifs in the Fairy Tales of Japan (Paperback)
This book is one of the very few works available in English that discusses the psychological meaning of Japanese fairy tales. In fact, there are very few works in Japanese that look at these stories from a Jungian standpoint.
All in all, I am hard pressed to find what many others have found so praiseworthy. Psychological insight is surprisingly lacking in this work. While Kawai-san (1928-2007) takes care to summarize (which for most tales is unnecessary as they are included in an appendix), and sometimes resummarize these tales, he never goes into depth regarding what particular elements within a tale might mean. What is the meaning of the symbol and why is it there? What does the presence of that symbol imply about the Japanese psyche? These are the questions one would naturally ask in a work of this type. Unfortunately, almost all of these questions remain unanswered. What Kawai-san does do is list variations, draw correspondences with other Japanese and Western tales, and include comments he found notable from other sources. Then he discusses another tale, and the process begins again: summary, correspondences, notable thoughts from the outside. At times I felt like a frustrated professor overseeing an intelligent but otherwise unpromising graduate student. Yes, Mr. Kawai, but do you have any insights of your own to offer?
This book has many problems. I will list three short ones here, hoping they will suffice. Page 21: "Modern people are so far detached from this kind of [folk] wisdom that something which is essentially needless, the interpretation of fairy tales, becomes necessary." This sentence displays a fundamental lack of understanding of how fairy tales function. They function via the unconscious. Modern man is no less capable of receiving their message than "less modern" man. Interpretation is never required for these tales to have an effect on the listener (or reader). Interpretation is the means by which depth psychologists translate symbols into psychological concepts and gain understanding about how the psyche is structured.
Page 22: "We can interpret or analyze, without any other resources, the Western's story's complete form; but if we treat a Japanese fairy tale as an object in itself, separate from the subjective feelings in the reader's mind, its structure will confound any analysis." Really? Any analysis? I cannot imagine Marie-Louise von Franz making such a foolish statement. Granted, very few people have the appropriate quality and quantity of insights that would allow them to write an interpretative, psychological book. But if one does in fact write such a book, please don't tell the reader that a proper self-contained analysis cannot be conducted.
On page 80, in the story of the "Elder Sister and the Younger Brother," a story from Oki-no-erabu island, Kawai-san misapplies the trickster and savior archetypes. In this story the sister tricks her brother's tormentors into eating poisoned food after the brother ate such food and died. However, just because she tricked them doesn't mean she is an example of the Trickster archetype (who is not fundamentally motivated by revenge). And the fact that she ultimately saves her brother doesn't mean that she embodies the Savior archetype (who has an impulse to save much more than just his or her blood relations). This lack of a good grasp of the concept of archetypes is disturbing in a Jungian analyst and author.
The lack of an index is another disappointment.
In retrospect my readings of works by Jung, Marie-Louise von Franz, James Hillman, Edward Edinger and Joseph Campbell set my expectations rather high; I was looking forward to meaty insights and depth of understanding and sensitivity. For readers with some familiarity with Jungian concepts, any of von Franz's interpretations of fairy tales are highly recommended. Those looking to purchase this book are strongly cautioned; they will find little here to deepen their understanding of Japanese fairy tales.
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