Page:A History of Japanese Literature (Aston).djvu/92

76 a high rank amongst Japanese classics, and has insured its being handed down to our own day as a most esteemed model for composition in the native Japanese style. It has been followed by many imitations, but has had no equal.

Monogatari, a word which will be frequently met with below, means "narrative." It is applied chiefly to fiction but there are some true histories which fall under this denomination.

The date and authorship of both these books is unknown. We may, however, accept the opinion of the eminent native critic Motoöri, that they belong to a time not long after the period Yengi (901–922). Both are obviously the work of persons well versed in the literature of the day, and familiar with court life in Kiōto.

The Taketori Monogatari is usually given the precedence in order of time. It is what we should call a fairy-tale. The scene is laid in the neighbourhood of Kiōto, and the personages are all Japanese. The language too is as nearly as possible pure Japanese. But there are abundant traces of foreign influences. The supernatural machinery is either Buddhist or Taoist, and most even of the incidents are borrowed from the copious fairy-lore of China.

An old man who earned a living by making bamboo-ware (Taketori means bamboo-gatherer) espied one day in the woods a bamboo with a shining stem. He split it open, and discovered in one of the joints a beautiful little maiden three inches in height. He took her home and adopted her as his daughter, giving her the name of