In good condition with some minor age-related wear and marks from previous use. Some rubbing and bumping to the extremities. The previous owner left a purple-inked faculty stamp on the lower text-block. Minor age-related toning and foxing to the pages. Includes a beautiful illustrated frontispiece, in color. Please see our photographs and ask any questions prior to purchasing.

A rare 1920’s Japanese language reprint of a classic Japanese story: The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, also known as the Tale of Princess Kaguya. It centers on a princess from the Moon who is discovered as a baby inside a stalk of a glowing bamboo plant. She grows and becomes extremely beautiful, attracting five suitors seeking her hand in marriage. She turns them away by challenging them to an impossible task. Eventually she attracts the affections of the Emperor of Japan. She reveals her celestial origin to him and returns to the Moon. This tale is a monogatari, fictional prose narrative, containing elements of Japanese folklore. It was originally written in the late 9th or 10th century during the Heian Period, by an unknown author. It is considered the oldest surviving work in the monogatari form. This specific book once resided in the prestigious library of language scholar Johannes Rahder (1898-1988). Rahder was a Dutch Orientalist and professor of Japanese at the University of Leiden from 1931 through 1946, and at Yale University from 1947 through 1965. He was depicted in the work of the legendary Langston Hughes' (1901-1967)  'I Wonder, I Wander'. After a brief meeting between the two figures on the Trans-Siberian Railway in 1933, Hughes recognized Rahder as being a "...famous authority on obscure Oriental languages". Rahder's purple-inked University of Leiden faculty stamp is on the lower text-block of this folio. 

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