Folk legends from Tono : Japan's spirits, deities, and phantastic creatures 遠野拾遺物語

Bibliographic Information

Folk legends from Tono : Japan's spirits, deities, and phantastic creatures = 遠野拾遺物語

collected by Yanagita Kunio and Sasaki Kizen ; translated and edited by Ronald A. Morse ; illustrations by Marjorie C. Leggitt

Rowman & Littlefield, c2015

  • : pbk
  • : cloth

Other Title

遠野物語拾遺 = Tono monogatari shui

Tōno monogatari

Title Transcription

Folk legends from Tono : Japan's spirits, deities, and phantastic creatures = トオノ シュウイ モノガタリ

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Note

Includes index

"This 1935 supplementary collection of 299 tales is referred to in Japanese as 『遠野物語拾遺』(Tono monogatari shui). In English, the translator has titled this supplementary collection Folk legends from Tono : Japan's spirits, deities, and phantastic creatures."-- T.p. verso

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Boldly illustrated and superbly translated, Folk Legends from Tono captures the spirit of Japanese peasant culture undergoing rapid transformation into the modern era. This is the first time these 299 tales have been published in English. Morse's insightful interpretation of the tales, his rich cultural annotations, and the evocative original illustrations make this book unforgettable. In 2008, a companion volume of 118 tales was published by Rowman & Littlefield as the The Legends of Tono. Taken together, these two books have the same content (417 tales) as the Japanese language book Tono monogatari. Reminiscent of Japanese woodblocks, the ink illustrations commissioned for the Folk Legends from Tono, mirror the imagery that Japanese villagers envisioned as they listened to a storyteller recite the tales.The stories capture the extraordinary experiences of real people in a singular folk community. The tales read like fiction but touch the core of human emotion and social psychology. Thus, the reader is taken on a magical tour through the psychic landscape of the Japanese "spirit world" that was a part of its oral folk tradition for hundreds of years. All of this is made possible by the translator's insightful interpretation of the tales, his sensitive cultural annotations, and the visual charm of the book's illustrations. The cast of characters is rich and varied, as we encounter yokai monsters, shape-shifting foxes, witches, grave robbers, ghosts, heavenly princesses, roaming priests, shamans, quasi-human mountain spirits, murderers, and much more.

Table of Contents

Preface Map Japan's Traditional Spirit World Chapter One: Biology and Human Emotions Chapter Two: Souls Adrift between Two Worlds Chapter Three: Family, Kinship, and Household Deities Chapter Four: Sidestepping Misfortune and Evil Chapter Five: Survival on the Edge Chapter Six: Tracking Nature's Trickster Animals Chapter Seven: Glimpses of Modern Monsters Chapter Eight: No Spirit Forgotten Appendix A: Sasaki Kizen: A Brief Biography of Japan's Grimm Appendix B: Background to the Book Glossary and Topical Index About the Author

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