Basil Hall Chamberlain (1850–1935)

A small collection of Aino folktales, which are (unedited, apart from translation) transcripts of oral tales and lore fragments. The complete lack of editing tends to make some of them rather blunt reads. The content itself is a nice gateway to the lore of these indigenous people of Japan. Several of the tales are similar to Western ones (as is the case of the baby abandoned in a box, that of the child whose heart is requested as healing food by its stepmother, and the existence of Hades (though I suspect this particular word is the author's interference in translation)), a thing pointing to the subtle influence of the Western civiliazation. There is also a hint of the Northeastern Siberian folklore in several tales, suggesting a common origin.… (mehr)