Factbook

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Literary History

The most famous Japanese folk tales are: Princess Kaguya, The Grateful Crane and Urashima Taro

[UPDATED: 12-20-2017]

Three famous Japanese folk tales are: Princess Kaguya (extra-terrestrial supernatural creature); The Grateful Crane (shape-shifting bird); and Urashima Taro (time travel). Perhaps, Princess Kaguya a story from the 10^th Century, which is now very well-known outside Japan after the release of the Studio Ghibli animated film in 2013, has had the biggest impact. A Japanese spacecraft named after the Princess orbited the Moon between 2007-2009 taking photos of the Moon in Ultra-High Definition.

The most famous Japanese folk tales are: Princess Kaguya, The Grateful Crane and Urashima Taro Posted March 23rd, 2017 by Koji Chikatani

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Factbook

The most famous Japanese folk tales are: Princess Kaguya, The Grateful Crane and Urashima Taro

New international standards for measuring time, weights and measures encouraged some to call for Japan to adopt a Westernised writing system abandoning traditional alphabets[UPDATED: 7-7-2023]

In 1841 Shakespeare’s name appeared in print in Japan in Japanese for the first time[UPDATED: 6-14-2023]

Japan experts, Japanologists, commentators, as well as visitors to Japan, have been deriding each other’s ‘Knowledge’ of the nation for over a century[UPDATED: 5-10-2023]

By 1905 Japanese people were already buying the ‘Encyclopedia Britannica’ on subscription and their prompt payment was used to highlight the trustworthiness of the nation[UPDATED: 4-3-2023]

By the early 1900s so many books had been published ‘Explaining Japan’ that one author felt compelled to write a book summarising them[UPDATED: 3-22-2023]

In the 1870s Japanese bookshops already sold Western books targeting Japan’s growing student population[UPDATED: 3-1-2023]

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