Who Is Kaguya-hime? The Shining Child of a Heian Prose Tale
Kaguya-hime is the heroine of an anonymous Heian-period prose story: a child found glowing in a plant stalk who sets her suitors impossible tasks and returns to her own people. Her source is a written literary tale, not a cult.
The five clues from the game
From faint to clear: each clue is a little darker than the last.
- The earliest known version is an anonymous prose story from the Heian period, valued as the oldest surviving work of its literary kind.
- A childless old man finds a tiny child inside a glowing plant stalk, and she reaches a young woman's stature within about three months.
- Five noble suitors are each given an impossible quest, such as fetching a jeweled branch or a robe of flame-proof rat fur, and all fail.
- When envoys descend from the sky, the emperor's guards cannot stop them, and a feather robe erases her sorrow as she departs.
- In the final scene a grieving emperor has her letter and an elixir of immortality burned on Mount Fuji, whose smoke is said to rise still.
Three ways to read this scroll
Living practice
She is a literary character, not a worshipped kami. A government tourism document says scholars think three wooden statues of 1315 at Shibokusa Sengen-jinja may have been carved as Kaguya-hime and two suitors, though one figure is now treated as an image of the Sengen goddess.
Folk tradition
In Japan the story is retold as a folk tale. A legend explains the name of Mount Fuji from the word for immortality, and an older Man'yoshu poem about a bamboo cutter hints at earlier stories, though how they relate is not settled.
Literary work and art
The earliest verified record is the anonymous Heian prose tale itself, placed in the late ninth or early tenth century. The oldest manuscript is dated 1592, picture scrolls date from the early 1600s, and Dickins's English translation appeared in 1888.
Why does a story about a girl from the sky end on a mountaintop, with a letter burning? Anyone who reads the old tale of the shining child to the last page meets that scene: a grieving emperor, a scroll, a bamboo joint holding the elixir of immortality, and a long climb up the highest peak in Suruga.
The ending gives the story its most lasting claim, an explanation for the name of Mount Fuji. Between that scene and the opening, where an old man finds a tiny girl glowing inside a plant stalk, lies a prose tale from the Heian period whose author nobody can name. This page reads it as a written work and shows what is known, and not known, about its age.
The story in outline
An old man who cuts bamboo for a living sees a stem glowing. Inside is a creature a palm's breadth tall. He and his wife, who have no children of their own according to Wikipedia, take it in, and the stems he cuts afterward sometimes hold gold. In F. V. Dickins's 1888 translation, the child reaches the stature of a young woman after three months.
Names vary. Dickins has the old man name her Mimurodo Imube no Akita, though she is more commonly called the Lady Kaguya. Wikipedia gives the longer form Nayotake no Kaguya-hime, "Shining Princess of the Young Bamboo."
Five nobles court her. She sets each a quest: the Buddha's stone bowl, a branch from the island of Horai, a robe of flame-proof rat fur, a jewel from a dragon's head, a shell the swallow brings. Each fails. The emperor courts her too and is gently refused. She begins to weep whenever she sees the moon, then tells her foster parents that she was born in the capital of the moonfolk, who will arrive at the full moon. Guards cannot stop them. A feather robe is placed on her, and she leaves.
The kind of source behind her
This is not oral folklore written down by a collector. It is a literary work. Wikipedia describes it as an anonymous prose narrative of the late ninth or early tenth century and the oldest surviving work in the monogatari form. Proposed authors include Minamoto no Shitago and the poet Ki no Haseo, among others, and scholars debate even whether one person or several wrote it.
The oldest manuscript, Wikipedia says, is dated 1592. So every version we read has passed through many centuries of copying. Dickins, whose title page of 1888 calls it "the earliest of the Japanese romances, written in the tenth century," gave a date close to today's estimates. The World Digital Library's note on a seventeenth-century scroll from the National Diet Library also puts the writing around the tenth century.
Records at a glance
| Record | Date | Kind of source | What it shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Poem about an old bamboo cutter in the Man'yoshu | About 759, per Wikipedia | Poetry anthology | An older image of a bamboo cutter meeting mysterious women |
| The tale itself | Late 9th or early 10th century | Anonymous Heian prose | The story as we know it |
| Passage in the Tale of Genji | By about the year 1000, per Wikipedia | Court novel | Calls the tale the ancestor of all tales |
| Similar story in the Konjaku Monogatarishu | 12th century | Collection of tales | Relation to the tale is debated |
| Oldest surviving manuscript | 1592 | Manuscript | The earliest text we can hold |
| Two picture scrolls, Chester Beatty Library | Early 17th century | Illustrated scrolls | Believed to be the earliest surviving illustrated copy, per the Irish Times |
| Hanging scroll of the princess by Kita Kizuki, Cincinnati Art Museum | Artist lived 1864 to 1949; the museum gives no date | Painting | The subject kept attracting painters |
| Dickins's translation | 1888 | English translation | A Victorian rendering with notes |
A letter, an elixir and a mountain
The last scene is the one the story is best known for. In Dickins's English, the emperor orders the letter and the elixir burned on the highest peak in Suruga.
"men say that the smoke of that burning still curls from its high peak to mingle with the clouds of Heaven." F. V. Dickins, The Old Bamboo-Hewer's Story (Tokyo: San Kaku Sha, 1888), p. 36.
The mountain's name is explained as coming from the word for immortality. A footnote in Dickins lists one way of writing Fuji that means "Immortal," and the tourism document discussed below repeats the explanation. It is a legend of naming, not a historical record.
Wikipedia notes that the smoke suggests an active volcano when the tale was written, and that the Kokin Wakashu indicates the smoke had stopped by 905. Other sources, it adds, suggest 871 to 881. The sources do not agree, so treat the date as a range.
From page to shrine
A government tourism document published by Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism describes Shibokusa Sengen-jinja in Oshino. The shrine keeps three wooden statues of 1315. One is now considered an image of the Sengen goddess Konohanasakuya-hime, and scholars believe the trio may have been carved to represent Kaguya-hime and two suitors.
That is an art-historical theory about statues, and it should not be read as worship of the princess. The Sengen goddess is venerated in her own right, and the tale should not be treated as shrine doctrine.
How to read a Kaguya-hime text
- Check the translator. Wikipedia says Dickins's version is Victorian in style, with inaccuracies and some omissions. Later translations exist.
- Look at the names. Different editions give the girl, the old man and the suitors different forms.
- Find the five quests. A shortened retelling may skip some of them.
- Notice the feather robe. Dickins writes that whoever puts it on changes heart and knows sorrow no more. He calls the sky beings "Angels," a Victorian word choice, not a fact about the tale.
- Ask whether the ending is explaining a place name, as the Fuji episode does.
One more check: a story set at court is not always a court text. Tamamo-no-Mae is set in the twelfth century but is known from medieval tales.
Common mix-ups
- An old village folk tale. The surviving form is a written Heian work. A Man'yoshu poem and a later tale collection suggest older and parallel stories, but how they relate is not settled.
- A goddess. No source we read treats Kaguya-hime as an object of worship. The Oshino statues are a theory, not a cult.
- The moon kami. The moonfolk come from a capital in the moon. We found no source that links them to Tsukuyomi, who belongs to the mythic chronicles.
- A punishment story. Wikipedia describes her stay on earth as punishment for an unnamed offence. Dickins says only that it was decreed long ago that she should descend, and we could not confirm the punishment wording there.
- Modern retellings. Films and comics often change the plot. This page follows the old text only.
This scroll is sealed. Win a round of the lantern game to open it and stamp a seal in your album, or read it now without playing (no seal is added).
Frequently asked questions
Is Kaguya-hime a goddess?
No source we read treats her as one. She is the heroine of an anonymous Heian prose story. A Japanese government tourism document notes that scholars think three wooden statues of 1315 at a shrine in Oshino may represent her and two suitors, but one statue is now regarded as an image of the Sengen goddess. That is an art-historical theory, not worship.
When was the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter written, and by whom?
Wikipedia places it in the late ninth or early tenth century and calls the author unknown. Candidates proposed include Minamoto no Shitago and the poet Ki no Haseo, and scholars debate whether one person or several wrote it. The oldest surviving manuscript is dated 1592, so the original wording cannot be checked directly.
Why does the story end on Mount Fuji?
The emperor, grieving, orders her farewell letter and the elixir of immortality burned on the highest mountain in Suruga. The legend says the mountain's name comes from the word for immortality, and the smoke is said to rise still. It is a naming legend. Wikipedia adds that the smoke has been used to date the tale, with estimates that differ.
Can I read the old story in English for free?
F. V. Dickins's translation, The Old Bamboo-Hewer's Story, was published in 1888 and a scan is on the Internet Archive. Wikipedia describes it as Victorian in style, with inaccuracies and some omissions. It is useful as a historical document, but a later translation is better for the exact wording of the tale.
Sources
Opened and read by our team. Checked November 9, 2026.
- The Old Bamboo-Hewer's Story (Taketori Monogatari): The Earliest of the Japanese Romances, Written in the Tenth Century, F. Victor Dickins, Tokyo: San Kaku Sha, 1888 (Cornell University Library scan, Internet Archive). Plot details, the Fuji ending quoted on page 36, and Dickins's own notes. Checked November 9, 2026.
- The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, Wikipedia. Dating range, anonymous authorship, oldest manuscript, early records and translations. Checked November 9, 2026.
- Shibokusa Sengen-jinja Shrine, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Japan (multilingual tourism database). The 1315 statues, the scholars' theory about the princess, and the Fuji name legend. Checked November 9, 2026.
- The beauty behind the bamboo curtain (review of the Chester Beatty Library exhibition), Aidan Dunne, The Irish Times, 11 May 2012. Two early-seventeenth-century scrolls believed to be the earliest illustrated copy. Checked November 9, 2026.
- The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (World Digital Library item 7354, National Diet Library scroll; description as reproduced on Wikimedia Commons), National Diet Library, Japan, via the World Digital Library. A seventeenth-century scroll and the dating of the writing to about the tenth century. Checked November 9, 2026.
- Taketori Monogatari (Tale of the Bamboo Cutter), hanging scroll by Kita Kizuki, Cincinnati Art Museum. The princess as a painting subject for an artist who lived 1864 to 1949. Checked November 9, 2026.
Credits for fonts and illustrations are on the methodology page.