If you want to improve your Japanese, this is it! Let's improve your Japanese through reading!
Hello everyone!
It's getting hotter and hotter these days.
Even just riding a bike for a little while, huh? I think I got a little sunburnt.
Trees and flowers are growing rapidly, insects are flying around, and summer is coming! ! It's like that.
Well, today I would like to introduce a story called "Kaguya-hime"!
It's a little long, but it's a famous story, so please read it!
"Princess Kaguya"
Once upon a time, there lived an old man and an old woman.
The old man's job is to pick bamboo.
Today too, the old man went to the mountains to collect bamboo.
When I was walking in the mountains, I thought, "Oh? ?
A single bamboo is shining with glitter!
Grandpa: "What is this beautiful bamboo?!"
The old man cut the glowing bamboo.
Then I was surprised...! !
A cute girl came out of the bamboo.
Grandpa: "What a cute little boy...! Let's take him home and show him to Grandma!"
The old man took the girl in his arms and went home.
Grandfather: "Grandmother! Grandmother!"
Grandmother: "Well, what happened?"
Grandfather: "I found a shiny bamboo in the mountains. A girl came out of it!"
Grandmother: "Oh! How cute!"
The grandfather and grandmother, who had no children, named the girl "Kaguyahime" and raised her with great care.
After Kaguya-hime came, strange things began to happen.
Whenever my grandfather goes to the mountains, there is always a golden bamboo.
When I cut it open, I found a lot of money inside.
Thanks to this, the old man and the old woman became rich and were able to feed Kaguya-hime delicious food and buy her beautiful clothes.
Kaguya-hime always enjoyed picking flowers and chasing butterflies in the garden.
Grandfather and grandmother always felt happy when they saw their healthy daughter.
A short time later, Kaguya-hime grew up to be a beautiful girl.
Then, rumors of Kaguya-hime began to spread throughout the town.
People in the town wanted to see Kaguya-hime's beauty at first sight.
After that, men came to Kaguya-hime's house almost every day to ask her to marry him.
All of them are rich and high-ranking people.
But Kaguya didn't want to marry anyone.
Grandfather: "Kaguya-hime, many people want to marry you. Why don't you get married?"
Kaguyahime: "I want to be with my grandfather and grandmother forever."
Grandfather: "Yes. We also want to live with you forever."
But men don't give up.
He comes to Kaguya every day and asks him to marry her.
Kaguya-hime: "Then let me make a request to each of you. I will marry the one who brings me what I want."
Then Kaguya-hime said to each one what she wanted.
What Kaguya-hime asked for was a tree that bore gold, a fur that would not burn even when baked, a dragon necklace that glowed in five colors, and so on.
At first, the men tried hard to find what they had asked for, but they couldn't find it, so they made fake things and brought them to Kaguya-hime.
However, Kaguya-hime soon realized that it was a fake.
Kaguya-hime: "You guys, these are all fakes. Since you didn't bring me what I want, of course I can't marry you."
Before long, the night of the full moon was approaching.
From that time on, Kaguya-hime began to cry every night when she looked at the moon alone.
Grandfather and grandmother were very worried.
Grandfather: "Kaguya-hime, why do you cry when you look at the moon?"
Grandmother: "Did something sad happen to you?"
Princess Kaguya: "Grandfather, grandmother. There is something I must say. Actually, I am the princess of the moon country. On the day of the full moon, the moon came to pick me up, and I had to return to the moon. No. I cried every day because I was sad to leave my grandfather and grandmother."
Grandpa: "Is that true?!"
Grandmother: "Are you going to disappear on the night of the full moon?"
Kaguya-hime: "Yes, it's true."
Grandfather: "Our precious daughter...! We won't let you go to the moon!"
Grandfather gathered a large number of soldiers and prepared them for the arrival of the moon.
And then came the Twelfth Night.
The light of the moon shines brightly, and a carriage comes down to pick you up from the moon.
The old man and the soldiers aimed their bows and tried to drive away the moon people.
However, the lunar carriage was so bright that everyone became blind.
The people of the moon came to Kaguya-hime,
Moon Man: "Now, princess. Let's go."
Kaguya-hime: "Yes."
Grandfather: "Kaguya-hime, wait!"
Grandmother: "Don't go!"
Kaguyahime: "Grandfather, grandmother. Thank you so much for raising me this far. Goodbye."
Thus, Kaguya-hime returned to the world of the shining moon.
How was it?
In fact, the story of "Kaguyahime" is a story made in the Heian period called "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter".
In Japan, the story is so famous that it appears in textbooks in school Japanese classes.
Do you have any old famous stories in your country?
It would be nice to discuss what you have to say.
That's it for today!
Have a good GW, everyone!
