The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (竹取物語 Taketori Monogatari), also known as the Tale of Princess Kaguya, is a 10th century Japanese story about Kaguya-hime, a girl discovered as a baby inside of a bamboo stalk. It includes folklore as well as early science fiction, and has been adapted into many different book formats as well as films, most notably Studio Ghibli's 2013 animated film. There are picture books, manga, graded readers, and more, so use this Reading Ladder to find the perfect version of Kaguya-hime for you as you progress in Japanese.
This guide is one of several compiled by Eva Olson during her summer 2017 internship in the East Asian Collection. Eva is in the Book Studies concentration at Smith College and studying Japanese.
