Book Review: Japanese Fairy Tales (Yei Theodora Ozaki)
更新日：3 日前
Tuttle Publishing 1970
In this book review, I won't dare to tell you what you should think about this book, but I will simply give my impression of the book, the stories, the writing and the style. Reading books is a very personal choice, and I think that some genres suit certain personalities, while for others it can be a hard no.
I really enjoy readying and recently on my long commutes to and from work, I've been flying through books like there's no tomorrow. I wanted to share my opinion of the books I've read and possible shed some light on them just incase anyone is pondering about whether or not they should read them.
First in line is Japanese Fairy Tales, compiled by Yei Theodora Ozaki.
Don't judge a book by it's cover they say!
I was wondering through Kinokuniya Books in Tokyo just browsing their excellent selection of English books. It felt like I had never left home- it was a luxury I took for granted. Bookstores. Anyways, they had a section called 'Japanese Culture', and while I am very interested in Japanese culture, I don't particularly like to read about it as if feels more like a reference book than a selection of cool stories.
From my own personal perspective, I really enjoy reading folk tales, myths and fables. To me, they really bring out culture in a way that you don't really see on an everyday basis. These stories are usually the basis of childhood stories, and they are brought up in conversation as pop cultural references all the time. Whether or not I can call it pop culture, I'm not sure. But they definitely have underlying importance in culture and upbringing - or so I like to believe.
Either way, I was looking at the collection of books they had neatly placed in alphabetic order on the shelf. I usually arrange my books in size order for some reason, but while I have 100 books they have 3000 so I think alphabetically is the best way. They had a few books that were myths and fables adapted into new fictional stories by various authors - nothing that particularly enticed me and my interests. I finally decided to pick up this book that seemed to have no specific place on the shelf. It had interesting Japanese style artwork as the front cover; definitely a story I wasn't familiar with. The title was simple "Japanese Fairy Tales". It caught my interest because of the plural form "tales"; I'm a sucker for short stories.
I flicked through it quickly, and decided it was worth reading. I like fairy tales, and learning more about Japanese culture through old stories was exactly what I didn't know I wanted. It was a little pricier than the other books, and it wasn't really that thick, but there were many stories that I didn't know and hadn't even heard of before, so I thought 'why not' and went to the check out.
My thoughts and opinions~
So, I started reading this book on the first commute after buying the book. It was interesting, and well written. It told the stories in a simple way, without using overtly complex language or sentence structures. I found that when it comes to fairy tales and fables, some authors prefer to keep the authenticity of the stories by writing them in old English and using vocabularies that I've never even seen before let alone understand. This is totally fine if it's your style, but it just isn't mine.
Ozaki has a comforting writing style, she's very good at capturing the essence of the story and allowing our minds to do the rest. I like this style, as the description isn't too... in your face. She keeps it light and straight to the point. It's not a difficult read, and never once did I have to re-read a sentence, which tends to happen when I'm on my sardine-stacked commute.
The stories are kept short and sweet. The stories don't finish abruptly, and there's a nice flow to each story, and while each plot is different, I felt that there was a solid understanding of each one. Considering the book was written in 1908, it feels timeless.
The reason I'm so astonished by this book is because I've read my fair share of fairy tales and fables by various authors. I sometimes read them with delight, and other time I just about get through them. There seems to be a tendency in some authors that when they're writing fairy tales for adults, they assume that the reader wants an extensive background and solid research done about each story. This isn't the case for me, that's not what I'm looking for. I don't need the stories or the characters to be historical figures of high society, or even real for that matter. I don't like having notes at the bottom of the page where it tells me the origins or a particular word that has ever so slightly played a part in the story I'm reading. I'm never looking for my fairy tales to be history- this is definitely a personal choice of mine. Sometimes, an adult just wants to read a well written fairy tale that isn't aimed at children. Dark stories, with gruesome plots are great, but no- I don't need to know where that kanji derived from and whether that place really existed.
Ozaki does an excellent job of writing an easy and fun to read book. There are over 20 stories, and the collection is great. They sometimes overlap which is great, and I'm sure that the order was carefully sought out as some stories reference previous characters and places.
I read this book in three days, it's about 300 pages long so it's a rather average sized book, maybe bordering onto the small side, but it was enticing and gripping. The stories are interesting, and are a real page turner. It doesn't surprise me that Ozaki was famous for her work.
Pros and Cons
I'm not really in a position to give the pros and cons of the book, as I mentioned before, I think that books are very personal things, and people like certain stories not only for genre, but writing style, characters, length, price, and many other things. While I can't really be subjective on such an opinionated topic, I will try to be as honest as possible.
I'd like to heavily state that it is merely my opinion, and I hope that you can find this helpful whether you agree with me or not. Let's start with the pros:
Pros
It doesn't contain complex vocabulary.
This is an important thing for me. It's not that I can't read complicated books, I just don't fine them enjoyable. I don't think that books should be teaching me English, but painting me a mental picture. How can I do that when I'm struggling with understanding the meaning of a sentence, or have to read it 20 times before fully grasping what it's trying to say.
It's a fairy tale, they're stories that are supposed to be fantastical and full of magic and colour. Therefore I love that this book doesn't explain the stories, but tells them. They don't feel translated at all, but actually as if I was reading them in their natural form.
It's a 300 page book.
The length of a book doesn't usually matter to me, but for this collection of short stories, it's a great length. Each story isn't too long or too short. They are concise and to the point like how fairy tales should be. The stories don't over describe a situation but rather give you an outline and leave the rest to your own imagination. This is ideal for me, as I like that it stimulates my brain. I am able to visualise character appearance and landscapes, taking me to places of old Japan, places that I'd never been before.
I think this contributes a lot to the enjoyment of the book, it's not too short or too long. I felt satisfied with the quantity of stories. I didn't get bored, and it wasn't cut short.
Cons
It's on the pricey side.
While I don't actually see expensive books as a problem, as I always assume they're an investment rather than a part of my spending budget. I do think that for some, price is important. It costs about 2600円 (jpy) which is approximately £15 (gbp) and $20 (usd) and €18 (eur).
I would say that most books I've seen cost around two thirds of that price, of course depending on the story, the author and whether it's hardback or not. Either way, I think that the price might deter people who just don't have that much to spend on a book. There are several places to buy it from, but if you're interested in buying it from us, send us a message and we can either send it directly or give you advice on where to buy it.
There's no historical input.
While this is fine for me, I do believe that sometimes people want to read fairy tales and stories of a different culture with some historical input. It's sometimes more fun knowing that the characters were real people or at least based on real people.
Conclusively~
Conclusively, the book is great, it's a fun read and an easy read. I recommend it to people of all ages. There aren't any stories that are particularly gruesome or offensive.
I have my MA in archaeology and my thesis was about how death was portrayed in Japanese fiction and media. I had read a lot around this subject and while it's not exactly the same, I do believe I have enough knowledge to shed light on this matter.
Like I've said before, it's really about points of interest and personality. Choosing a book that's right for you is incredibly difficult, or at least I find it very difficult. Growing up, I always used to read books, it was easy to find books that spoke to me as a teenager and a young adult. The themes were always the same, and the characters were relatable - of course. Nowadays, it's difficult to find books that speak to you on a level that 1. you're interested in and 2. that relate to you, be it via your interests or as an individual.
It's not that deep, but I do think that my opinion on this particular book is heavily influenced by who I am as a person. Because of this, I hope that if you can relate to me and my understand of what I want out of a book, then you can definitely enjoy this book. If you're on the complete opposite side to me, and don't really agree with me at all about what I want from a fairy tale, then I hope this review can help you make a decision.
Either way, the book is great. Whether you agree with me or not, I highly recommend giving at least the blurb a good read, or the first few paragraphs of the first story. How else can you decide what's right for you without evening trying, right?
If you've read the book, please feel free to write your opinions below. I'd love to hear what you thought about Ozaki's writing style and the stories told. If you have any recommendations on some other books you think I should take a look at, by all means, let me know! I love books, and I love reading, it'd be a pleasure to have something fun to do during my boring cram packed morning commutes.
Thank you for you time!
Author: Afnan Ezzeldin
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