Japanese Tales from Times Past: Stories of Fantasy and Folklore from the Konjaku Monogatari Shu (90 Stories Included)

The most famous work in all of Japanese classical literature, the Konjaku Monogatari Shu is as integral a part of its nation’s culture as Canterbury Tales and The Inferno are of ours. In Japanese Tales from Times Past, the editors and translators have winnowed down this massive cycle of traditional folklore from the original’s 1,039 stories to ninety powerfully entertaining tales that are widely regarded as literary masterpieces of lasting interest to both general and scholarly readers. These stories are filled with keen psychological insights, wry sarcasm, and scarcely veiled criticisms of the clergy, nobles, and peasants alike, suggesting that there are, among all classes and peoples, similar failings of pride, vanity, superstition and greed-as well as aspirations toward higher moral goals. Japanese Tales from Times Past marks the first time such a large selection has been translated and published for an English-reading audience. In their enlightening introduction, the editors highlight how many of the era’s most pressing social concerns-including the teaching of Buddhism, attitudes toward environmental ecology, and feminism-are still deeply relevant today.