The Japanese Fairy Book

Yei Theodora Ozaki

2023年5月 · WordFire +ORM

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この電子書籍について

The original classic collection where a biracial Japanese woman made her adopted homeland’s fairy tales her own. Yei Theodora Ozaki had a 19th century British upbringing, but embraced her Eastern heritage once she moved to Japan at sixteen. Refusing to marry, she made her own way and fell in love with the folklore of her new home. The Japanese Fairy Book became the first of many collections she adapted to bridge her two cultures and share these treasured stories with the English-speaking world. Marvel at the Dragon King and his palace under the sea. Awe over Princess Moonlight outwitting every would-be suitor to stay with her elderly foster parents. Cheer on Momotaro, the boy born from a peach who fights ogres with his trusty animal companions. Explore the age of giants and gods with wise Empress Jokwa as she defends her kingdom from a tyrannical wizard. Whimsical and tragic, epic and frightening, Ozaki’s translations of cunning creatures, brave samurai, royal dramas, and folk adventures from a bygone era will enchant readers of any age.

著者について

Yei Theodora Ozaki was born to one of the first Japanese aristocrats to study in England and the daughter of his tutor. While her parents’ marriage didn’t last, it afforded her the privileges of receiving a robust education and living with her father in Japan at sixteen. However, her parents’ experience made her unwilling to marry as her Japanese family wanted. So, she gained her independence and used her mastery of English to teach. This was when she acquired her infatuation with Japan’s folklore. “The old stories had taken possession of me: they were a wonder, a joy, an exaltation, though I little imagined that I would ever write them down,” she is quoted as saying by her friend, Mary Crawford Fraser, in a biographical sketch from Warriors of Old Japan, and Other Stories. Ozaki went on to write and publish her translations and adaptations of these in works like The Japanese Fairy Book, Romances of Old Japan, and Buddha’s Crystal and Other Fairy Stories. What motivated her to do it, as also quoted by Mary Crawford Fraser: “When I was last in England and Europe and found by the questions asked me that very mistaken notions about Japan, and especially about its women, existed generally, I determined if possible to write so as to dispel these wrong conceptions.”