Japanese Fairy Tales

This collection of Japanese Fairy Tales that Kevin got me for Christmas was world better than the collection of Hawaiian myths. The stories had actual plots and mostly sensible characters. As sensible as any fairy tale characters are anyway. It helped immensely that this collection was written by a Japanese woman who was deeply familiar with both the stories and the English language.

The collection wasn't perfect. I enjoyed reading it, but I still struggled a lot. That said, I'm more willing to attribute those struggles to my lack of familiarity with the culture rather than the authors. Every now and then a turn of phrase or a plot point would catch me completely off guard. It made reading a bit difficult, but the good kind of difficult.

My favorite stories were the ones that involved the Dragon King of the Sea. He pops up every now and then to aid good people, punish evil people, or just lead them astray. But he's so completely alien that he was a lot of fun to read about. Except for the story about how the jellyfish lost it's bones, which was horrifying.

The thing about this collection that surprised me the most was that the evil characters were redeemed as often as not. Sometimes they were punished horribly. But sometimes they were punished a little, just enough to get them to see the error of their ways. Then they went on to live happy and fulfilling lives. That's not an ending I'm used to seeing in fairy tales, but maybe it ought to be.

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