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The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter

One day, while walking in the bamboo forest, an old, childless bamboo cutter called Taketori no Okina (竹取翁?, "the Old Man who Harvests Bamboo") came across a mysterious, shining stalk of bamboo. After cutting it open, he found inside it a baby the size of his thumb. He rejoiced to find such a beautiful girl and took her home. He and his wife raised her as their own child and named her Kaguya-hime (かぐや姫 accurately, Nayotake-no-Kaguya-hime "princess of flexible bamboos scattering light"). Thereafter, Taketori no Okina found that whenever he cut down a stalk of bamboo, inside would be a small nugget of gold. Soon he became rich. Kaguya-hime grew from a small baby into a woman of ordinary size and extraordinary beauty. At first, Taketori no Okina tried to keep her away from outsiders, but over time the news of her beauty had spread.

Eventually, five princes came to Taketori no Okina's residence to ask for Kaguya-hime's hand in marriage. The princes eventually persuaded Taketori no Okina to tell a reluctant Kaguya-hime to choose from among them. Kaguya-hime concocted impossible tasks for the princes, agreeing to marry the one who managed to bring her his specified item. That night, Taketori no Okina told the five princes what each must bring. The first was told to bring her the stone begging bowl of the Buddha from India, the second a jewelled branch from the island of Hōrai,[4] the third the legendary robe of the fire-rat of China, the fourth a colored jewel from a dragon's neck, and the final prince the cowrie which was born from swallows.

Realizing that it was an impossible task, the first prince returned with an expensive bowl, but after noticing that the bowl did not glow with holy light, Kaguya-hime saw through his deception. Likewise, two other princes attempted to deceive her with fakes, but also failed. The fourth gave up after encountering a storm, while the final prince lost his life in his attempt.

After this, the Emperor of Japan, Mikado, came to see the strangely beautiful Kaguya-hime and, upon falling in love, asked her to marry him. Although he was not subjected to the impossible trials that had thwarted the princes, Kaguya-hime rejected his request for marriage as well, telling him that she was not of his country and thus could not go to the palace with him. She stayed in contact with the Emperor, but continued to rebuff his requests.

That summer, whenever Kaguya-hime saw the full moon, her eyes filled with tears. Though her adoptive parents worried greatly and questioned her, she was unable to tell them what was wrong. Her behaviour became increasingly erratic until she revealed that she was not of this world and must return to her people on the Moon. In some versions of this tale, it is said that she was sent to the Earth as a temporary punishment for some crime, while others say it was for safety during a celestial war.
Kaguya-hime goes back to the Moon

As the day of her return approached, the Emperor set many guards around her house to protect her from the Moon people, but when an embassy of "Heavenly Beings" arrived at the door of Taketori no Okina's house, the guards were blinded by a strange light. Kaguya-hime announced that, though she loved her many friends on Earth, she must return with the Moon people to her true home. She wrote sad notes of apology to her parents and to the Emperor, then gave her parents her own robe as a memento. She then took a small taste of the elixir of life, attached it to her letter to the Emperor, and gave it to a guard officer. As she handed it to him, the feather robe was placed on her shoulders, and all of her sadness and compassion for the people of the Earth were forgotten. The heavenly entourage took Kaguya-hime back to Tsuki-no-Miyako ("the Capital of the Moon"), leaving her earthly foster parents in tears.

The parents became very sad and were soon put to bed sick. The officer returned to the Emperor with the items Kaguya-hime had given him as her last mortal act, and reported what had happened. The Emperor read her letter and was overcome with sadness. He asked his servants, "Which mountain is the closest place to Heaven?", to which one replied the Great Mountain of Suruga Province. The Emperor ordered his men to take the letter to the summit of the mountain and burn it, in the hope that his message would reach the distant princess. The men were also commanded to burn the elixir of immortality since the Emperor did not wish to live forever without being able to see her. The legend has it that the word immortality (不死 fushi?, or fuji) became the name of the mountain, Mount Fuji. It is also said that the kanji for the mountain, 富士山 (literally "Mountain Abounding with Warriors"), is derived from the Emperor's army ascending the slopes of the mountain to carry out his order. It is said that the smoke from the burning still rises to this day. (In the past, Mount Fuji was much more volcanically active.)

Thank God It Wasn't A Peso

A drunkard begs an image of the Sacred Heart for a peso every morning. A sexton wraps a half-peso piece in paper with a rock to give it some weight, and throws it to him. It hits him in the head. The drunkard finds the coin and says if it had been a full peso, it would have killed him.

Thirteenth

A family had many sons, the thirteenth of which was known as Thirteenth. Their mother gave herb soup to whichever one came home first, and Thirteenth always got it. The king proclaimed that whoever brought him the ogre's coverlet would win a measure of gold. Thirteenth's envious brothers told him that Thirteenth had bragged of being able to do it.

Despite Thirteenth's protests, the king dispatched him. He sneaked in the home when only the ogress was there and hid under the bed. In the night, he pulled off the coverlet, distracting the ogre and ogress by meowing when they reacted, and carried it off.

When the king offered gold to whoever stole the ogre's horse, Thirteenth asked for a silk ladder and a bag of cakes. He used the ladder to scale the ogre's castle, and fed the horse cakes all the way back to the king. Then he tried to steal the ogre's bolster, but the bells on it gave him away. The ogre stuffed him in a barrel and tried to fatten him on raisins and figs, but when he told Thirteenth to stick a finger out, to tell how fat he was getting, Thirteenth stuck out a mouse's tail, and then a spindle, but the third time, he had to put out his finger.

The ogre arranged a feast, but when the ogress went to put Thirteenth in the oven, he asked her what the black thing inside was. When she bent to look, he pushed her in and escaped with the ogre's bolster and other treasure.

The king wanted the ogre himself. Thirteenth disguised himself as a monk and went to the ogre's castle. There, he told him that Thirteenth had killed his superior, and he intended to shut him up in the chest, but he did not know what he looked like. The ogre said that Thirteenth was as tall as he was, so Thirteenth asked him to get in the chest so he could see whether it was large enough. Then he fastened it and carried the ogre off. The king rewarded Thirteenth richly.

Allerleirauh

A king promised his dying wife that he would not marry unless to a woman as beautiful as she was, and when he looked for a new wife, he realized that the only woman that would not break the promise was his own daughter.

The daughter tried to make the wedding impossible by asking for three dresses, one as golden as the sun, one as silver as moon, and one as bright as the stars, and a mantle made from the fur of every kind of animal in the kingdom. When her father provided them, she took them, with a gold ring, a gold spindle, and a gold reel, and ran.

She slept in a forest where another king hunted, and his dogs found her. She asked them to have pity on her and received a place in the kitchen, where she worked, and was called "All-Kinds-of-Fur."

When the king held a ball, she went to it in her golden dress, and the king fell in love with her. The next morning, the cook set her to make soup for the king, and she put her golden ring in it. The king found it and questioned the cook and then All-Kinds-of-Fur, but she revealed nothing.

The next ball, she went dressed in her silver dress and put the golden spindle in the soup, and the king again could discover nothing.

The third ball, she went in the star dress, and the king slipped a golden ring on her finger without her noticing it and ordered that the last dance go longer than usual. She was not able to get away in time to change; she was able only to throw her fur mantle over her clothing before she had to cook the soup. When the king questioned her, he caught her hand, seeing the ring, and when she tried to pull it away, her mantle slipped, revealing the star dress. The king pulled off the mantle, revealing her, and they married. They lived happily ever after.

The Three Aunts

A poor man made his living by shooting. He had lost his wife, and one day, his pretty daughter decided to go seek her fortune. She got a place with the queen, and worked so hard that she became a favorite. The other women, jealous, told the queen that she had claimed to be able to spin a pound of flax in twenty-four hours. The queen set her to do it. She begged a room for herself but never having spinned, could not do it. An old woman came to her, got the story from her, and on the promise that the girl would call her "Aunt" on her wedding day, did the spinning for her.

The queen was pleased with it, making the other women more jealous. They said the girl had said she could weave it all in twenty-four hours, and the queen set her to the task again. Another old woman wove it for it, for the same price. Then the women claimed she could sew it all into shirts in twenty-four hours, and a third old woman sewed them for the same price.

The queen decided to marry her to the prince, because such a worker would never need to hire working women. The women came. The first was a hag with a nose three ells long, the second had a humped back, the third eyes like saucers, but the bride greeted them as "Aunt" and the prince had to seat them at the high table. He asked why they were so hideous. The first blamed her nose on her spinning, and the second her back on her weaving, and the third her eyes on her sewing. The prince said that his bride would no longer spin, weave, or sew.

The Three Crowns

A childless king heard a voice asking him whether he would rather have a daughter who would flee him or a son who would destroy him. After consulting his wise men, who argued over whether the danger to life or honor was the worse, he concluded that the daughter would be less harmful to his realm; he went back to the garden and answered the voice that he wanted the daughter. She was born, and her father tried to shelter her in a castle, but when she was fifteen, he concluded a marriage for her. When she left to go to her husband, a whirlwind carried her off.

The wind left her at an ogress's house in the forest. An old woman there warned her of the danger, saying the ogress did not eat her only because she needed a servant and the old woman was old and tough; she gave the princess the keys, to go inside and clean the house perfectly, which was her only chance. The princess, Marchetta, cleaned the house. When the ogress returned, the old woman hid Marchetta and claimed the credit. When the ogress left again, the old woman fed Marchetta and told her to prepare a very fine dinner to charm her, warning her that if the ogress swore by all the seven heavens, she was not to be trusted; only her oath by her three crowns was trustworthy. The ogress praised the dinner and made many fine oaths about what she would do for the cook, but only when she swore by her three crowns did Marchetta come out. The ogress said that Marchetta had outsmarted her and could live in the castle as if it were her own; she gave her the keys and warned her against opening one doorway. One day Marchetta opened it and found three women dressed in gold, sitting on thrones, asleep; these were the ogress's daughters, whom she kept there because they would be in danger if not woken by a king's daughter. They woke, Marchetta feed them each an egg, and the ogress returned. Angry, she slapped Marchetta; then she tried to appease her, but Marchetta insisted on leaving. The ogress gave her a suit of men's clothes and a magic ring, which she should wear with the stone turned inside. If she were ever in great danger, and heard the ogress's name like an echo, she should look at the stone, but not until then.

Marchetta went to the king and, claiming to be a merchant's son driven out by his wicked stepmother's cruelty, took service as a page. The queen desired her as a lover and propositioned her. Marchetta, not wishing to reveal that she was a woman, said that she could not believe that the queen would cuckold the king. The queen told the king that she had tried to seduce her. The king immediately condemned Marchetta to death. Marchetta lamented her fate and asked who would help her; the echo said, "The ogress"; Marchetta remembered the stone and looked at it. A voice proclaimed that she was a woman, shocking her guards. The king demanded her story, and Marchetta gave it. The king had his wife thrown into the sea, invited Marchetta's parents to his court, and married her.

The Three Dogs

A dying peasant told his son and daughter that he had only his house and three sheep to leave them; they could divide them as they wished, but must not quarrel. The brother asked his sister which she wished to have. She chose the house. He told her he would take the sheep and seek his fortune. He met a stranger who offered to trade three dogs for his sheep: Salt, which would bring him food; Pepper, who would tear attackers to pieces; Mustard, which could break iron or steel with its teeth. The brother agreed and once the trade was done, asked Salt for food; it instantly gave him some.

He went on and found a town drapped in black. There, he heard that a dragon demanded the tribute of a maiden every year, and this year the lot had fallen on the princess. He went to where she was left, and set Pepper on the dragon. The dog swallowed it all except for two teeth, which the man pocketed. The princess offered to marry him. The man said he wanted to see the world, and would return in three years. When she was being driven back, the coachman told her that her rescuer was gone and he would kill her if she did not say that he had killed the dragon. She promised. The king said he would marry her to him, but he put off the marriage a year, because she was so young. At the end of the year, she begged him to put it off another, and again, for a third year. Then the wedding date was set.

The man returned, but when he said he had killed the dragon, he was thrown into prison. He called Mustard, which ate through the bars. Then he sent Salt for food. Salt went to the castle, and the princess recognized it and gave it food in a royal handkerchief. She told her father the truth, the king sent a servant to follow the dog, and the man produced the dragon's teeth to prove his story. The coachman was thrown in prison, and the man married the princess.

After a time, he remembered his sister and sent for her. The dogs appeared before him and told him they had been waiting to see if he would remember his sister. Then they turned into birds and flew into heaven.

The Three Fairies

An envious widow, Caradonia, had an ugly daughter, Grannizia. She married a rich landowner with a lovely daughter, Cicella, and in her envy tormented her stepdaughter, dressing her badly, giving her poor food, and making her work. One day, Cicella dropped her basket over a cliff. She saw, below, a hideous ogre and politely asked him to help her. He said if she climbed, she would get it. She climbed down and found three beautiful fairies at the bottom of the cliff. She was polite with them, combing their hair and claiming to find pearls and rubies along with lice. They took her to their castle and showed her their treasures; she admired them but was not bedazzled. Finally, they showed her rich clothing and asked her to choose a dress; she chose a cheap one. They asked her how she wanted to leave, and she said the stable door was good enough for her. They gave her a splendid gown, dressed her hair, and brought her to a golden door, telling her to look up when she went through it. A star fell on her forehead.

Grannizia went to the same place and was rude, complaining of the lice in their hair. They brought her to the wardrobe, and she grabbed the fanciest dress. They did not give it to her, but sent her out the stable door, where a donkey's testicle fell on her forehead. Her furious mother took Cicella's clothing and gave it to Grannizia, and sent Cicella to tend pigs. There, a nobleman, Cuosemo, saw her and asked her stepmother for leave to marry her. Caradonia agreed, sealed up Cicella in a barrel, and presented Grannizia as the bride instead. After the wedding night, he went back to the house, and a tabby cat told him that Cicella was in the barrel. He let her out, put Grannizia in her place, and fled with her. Caradonia returned with wood, created a fire, and boiled water to scald Cicella to death. She poured it in the barrel. Grannizia died, and Caradonia opened the barrel, saw her own daughter, and drowned herself in the well.