One day while walking in the bamboo forest,
Taketori-no Okina (The Old Man who Harvests Bamboo), comes across a mysterious,
shining stalk of bamboo. Cutting it open, inside he finds a baby, the size of
his thumb. Rejoicing to find such a beautiful girl, he takes her home and he
and his wife raise her as their own child, naming her Kaguya-hime. Thereafter,
Taketori-no Okina found that whenever he cut down a stalk of bamboo, inside he
found a small nugget of gold. Soon, he was rich, and Kaguya-hime grew from a
small baby into a woman of usual size and extraordinary beauty. At first,
Taketori-no Okina tries to sequester her from outsiders, but over time, the
news of her beauty spreads.
Eventually, five princes come to Taketori-no Okina's residence to ask for Kaguya-hime's
hand in marriage. The princes eventually persuade Taketori-no Okina to tell a
reluctant Kaguya-hime to choose from one of the five princes. To this,
Kaguya-hime concocts impossible tasks for the princes to accomplish. She will
agree to marry the prince who manages to bring her a specified item.
That night, Taketori-no Okina tells the five princes what each of them must
bring. The first is told to bring her the holy basin of the Buddha. The second
is told to retrieve a legendary azalea made of silver and gold. The third is
told to seek the legendary Robe of the Fire Rat of China. The fourth must
retrieve a colored jewel from a dragon's neck. The final prince is told to find
the seashell treasure of the swallows.
Realising that it was an impossible task, the first prince returns with an
expensive bowl, but noticing that the bowl does not glow with holy light,
Kaguya-hime sees through his deception. Two other princes likewise attempt to
deceive her with fakes but also fail. The fourth gives up after encountering a
storm, while the final prince loses his life in his attempt to retrieve the
object.
After this, the Emperor of Japan, called Tenno in Japanese, comes to see the
strangely beautiful Kaguya-hime and upon falling in love asks her to marry him.
Although he is not subjected to the impossible trials that thwarted the
princes, Kaguya-hime rejects his requests for marriage as well, telling him
that she was not of this country and thus could not go to the palace with him.
She stays in contact with the Emperor but continues to rebuff his requests.
That summer, whenever Kaguya-hime would see the full moon her eyes filled with
tears. Though her adopted parents worry greatly and question her, she is unable
to tell them what was wrong. Her behavior becomes increasingly erratic until
she reveals that she is 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 is because she
was sent to earth for safety during a celestial war.
As the day for her to return approaches, the Emperor sets many guards around
her house to protect her from the moon people, but when an embassy of
"Heavenly Beings" arrives at the door of the Bamboo Harvester's
house, the many guards are blinded by the strange light. Kaguya-hime announces
that though she loves her many friends on Earth, she must return with the moon
people to her true home. She write sad notes of apology to her parents and to the
Emperor, then gives her parents her own robe as a memento. She then takes a
small taste of the elixir of life, attached it to her letter to the Emperor,
and gives it to a guard officer. As she hands it to him, the feather robe is
placed on her shoulders, and all of her sadness and compassion for the people
of the Earth are forgotten. The heavenly entourage takes Kaguya-hime back to
Tsuki-no Miyako (The Capital of the Moon) against her will, leaving her earthly
foster parents in tears.
The parents become very sad and were soon put to bed sick. The guard officer
returns to the Emperor with the items Kaguya-hime had given him as her last
mortal act, and reported what had happened. The Emperor reads her letter and is
overcome with sadness. He asks his servants "Which mountain is the closest
place to heaven?", to which one replies that the Great Mountain of Suruga
Province is the closest place to heaven. The Emperor orders his men to take the
letter to the summit of the mountain and burn it, with the hope that his
message would reach the now distant princess. The men are also commanded to
burn the pot of elixir of immortality since the Emperor did not desire to live
forever without being able to see her. The legend has it that the word
immortality (fushi or fuji) became the name of the mountain, Mount Fuji. It is
also said that the kanji for the mountain, (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 than today.)
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