Customer Reviews

Mysterious Tales of Japan

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Mysterious Tales of Japan is an excellent read-aloud. In the first tale, a poor kindhearted fisherman saves the life of a sea turtle, is whisked away to an enchanted island, and marries a beautiful princess. It is only when the hero realizes he never said goodbye to his parents, that we discover this happy tale is now a ghost story. The humble fisherman has been away 300 years. Clinching the deal is the beautiful lacquered box his bride gives him and tells him never to open. Ghosts and goblins also haunt the tales of "Hi-ichi the Earless," and "The Boy Who Drew Cats." And the mournful wife of the coldhearted samurai is "Black Hair" gets one last night of joy among the living and sad revenge. This books is like the lacqquered box that the fisherman receives--you're afraid to open it--afraid what will happen--but you have to! The spirits you let out will leave you breathless as if you, yourself, have been whisked away to an enchanted isle in the middle of Japan. Great book, and by the way, the real lacquered box that belonged to the fisherman Urashima Taro is on display in a folk museum in Japan--but don't open it!

Most of the stories in Mysterious Tales of Japan were first recorded for Western readers by Lafcadio Hearn over a hundred years ago. Only Crane Maiden and Pine of Akoya are not based on Hearn's telling of the tales. Rafe Martin's collection is an excellent addition to Hearnian literature. Includes story notes detailing each story's origin.

In Rafe Martin's introduction, he notes his interest in Japan and some aspects of Japanese culture. He mentions that "Hearn's work was based on old literary collections, on the writings of Zen, on Buddhist and Shinto sources, and on the versions of the stories told to him by his Japanese wife and friends."

There is a table of contents but the stories are not divided or ordered in any perceivable way. The illustrations by Tatsuro Kiuchi are not necessary, but they greatly enhance the stories. Before each tale there is a simple brush and ink illustration that illuminates the heart of the story. Each story also has a one page oil illustration. Some of the stories in this book also appeared in the classic Japanese movie Kwaidan. Those illustrations show a definite influence from the movie.

I find Rafe Martin's retelling of the stories to be excellent. Compared with other collections of Japanese folklore, they are more readable and maybe slightly embellished. My one minor peeve was that he chose to spell the Snow Woman's name Yuke (you-kay) instead of the proper Yuki (you-key) maybe in hopes of avoiding non-Japanese speakers mispronouncing her name as "Yucky."

As many of these tales are ghost tales and there is some blood and gore, I think that they are suited for eight or nine years old and older. These stories are excellent read aloud, but are also enjoyable reading.

The source notes detail the origin and sometimes wider history of the tales. Rafe Martin also mentions how he has changed the tales and sometimes mentions his experiences of telling the stories.