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Secondary sourceBooklate 9th or early 10th century (sometimes dated c. 909)

The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter

late 9th or early 10th century (sometimes dated c. 909)

An anonymous Heian-era monogatari about a moon princess, which Murasaki Shikibu called 'the ancestor of all romances' in The Tale of Genji.

Murasaki called this earlier monogatari 'the ancestor of all tales' in Genji, showing the tradition she drew on and transformed.

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A painted scene in a traditional Japanese illustrated scroll style. On the upper right, a woman in layered robes and a gilded canopied carriage ride on a cloud of swirling white mist, surrounded by attendant women. On the lower left, a seated man in black robes sits on a veranda beside a woman in red and white garments. On the lower right, several figures in armor and helmets sit on a rooftop and veranda, and green pine branches appear in the foreground.
Illustrated scene from the Taketori Monogatari emaki, depicting Princess Kaguya's return to the moon.

About this source

What it is

The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter is a Japanese monogatari, a prose narrative mixing folklore and fiction, written by an unknown author in the late 9th or early 10th century during the Heian period. It tells of Kaguya-hime, a moon princess found inside a bamboo stalk who grows up, rejects five noble suitors with impossible tasks, and returns to the moon.

Why it matters

It is considered the oldest surviving work in the monogatari tradition. Murasaki Shikibu, writing about a century later, directly referenced it in The Tale of Genji, calling it the ancestor of all tales. This shows how she saw herself working within and transforming an existing literary tradition rather than inventing fiction from nothing.

Look closer

  • Why might the author of this tale have chosen to remain anonymous?
  • What does it tell us that Murasaki praised this story a century after it was written?
  • What does the moon princess's story suggest about ideas of beauty and status in Heian Japan?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Murasaki Shikibu on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Fragment of a decorated handscroll page with black calligraphic Japanese script running in vertical columns on gold-flecked paper with dark green and gold scattered patches and faint grass-like brushstrokes. A printed caption in the lower right reads in Japanese.Book

Primary source

The Tale of Genji

Murasaki Shikibu · c. 1010

Open double-page spread of a Japanese manuscript with gold and silver flecks scattered on brown-orange and dark mauve paper. Black cursive kana calligraphy runs in vertical columns on both pages.Book

Primary source

Kokin Wakashū

Ki no Tsurayuki and compilers · c. 905-920

Diary entry

Primary source

The Diary of Lady Murasaki

Murasaki Shikibu · c. 1008–1010

Scan of a page of handwritten Japanese cursive calligraphy in brown ink on pale paper, written in vertical columns. This is the final part of the Tosa Nikki diary, copied by Fujiwara no Teika in the 13th century.Diary entry

Primary source

Tosa Nikki

Ki no Tsurayuki · 935 (copy 13th century)

Photograph of the front cover of a Japanese book bound in pale green-grey paper. A vertical cream label on the cover bears brush-written Japanese characters and a small seal-like stamp appears at lower left. A color calibration chart and a metric ruler are along the edges of the image.Book

Secondary source

Eiri Genji Monogatari

Yamamoto Shunshō · 1650

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