Japanese tales /

These legends and popular tales220 in all, ranging from one to three pagesopen windows upon tradition and reality in medieval Japan. These vigorously and colloquially translated tales recall worlds conjured by Chaucer, Boccaccio, Perrault, and Grimm; East and West meet in common pursuit of ways to endure social and natural adversity. The social adversaries are often robbers, miscreant monks, or retired emperorsbut above all women, especially when disguised as foxes. The natural adversaries are ghosts and demons, snakes and dragons. One survives them all by wit and faithand a dollop of good luck. The Japanese tale shares with the German elements of violence and vulgarity but is finally closest to the hearty bawdiness and comic earthiness of the French and the English tales. Arthur Waldhorn, English Dept., City Coll., CUNY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A translation of Japanese medieval (822-1350, roughly) folk tales, or setsuwa bungaku, by a Harvard-educated professor of Japanese living in Norway. Traditional Chinese and Japanese literature, both dominated by a rigid, classical style, found relief in ""tale literature"": stories of the common folk, but also of princes and princesses, not to mention fox fairies, charmed snakes, wayward monks, and other romantic subjects. Presented here is a fresh, imaginative, and uniquely organized translation of 220 such tales. Divided into sets of five under headings like ""Pure Hearts,"" ""The Sexes,"" and ""Monk Jokes,"" all the stories are brief, spare, and to the point--though some contain wild flights of fancy. We meet the young noblewoman who, relieving herself behind a stone wall, becomes mesmerized by a snake who lusts after her; a young, not-very-studious monk who is encouraged to work by a beautiful young woman who will bed him only after he's memorized the Lotus Sutra (she's his tutor in disguise); a young commoner who visits a dream interpreter and steals the dream of another, wealthier man: the dream, to become a palace minister, comes true for the thief and not for the original dreamer, and thus we are warned to ""Keep your dreams to yourself!"" Told in a style clear, homey, and unpretentious, these tales slide down your throat like sake--almost without effort--yielding great pleasure as they go. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.