Japanese Myth

Welcome to The Book of Japanese Folklore: a fascinating journey through Japan’s folklore through profiles of the legendary creatures and beings who continue to live on in pop culture today. From the sly kitsune to the orgrish oni and mischievous shape-shifting tanuki, learn all about the origins of these fantastical and mythical creatures. With information on their cultural significance, and how it’s been spun into today’s popular culture, this tome teaches you about the stories and histories of the beings that inspired characters in your favorite movies, animes, manga, and games.

Giant monsters. Tales of eternal love. The beginning of creation. Pint-sized warriors. Long voyages and insurmountable heroics are only a small piece of the classic myths that have helped shape Japan’s unique and immaculate history. Each story in this audiobook is filled with excitement and adventure that is just waiting to be discovered and enjoyed.

Japanese mythology offers a fascinating lens from which to gaze upon the natural world. Through tales of heroic samurai, creepy vengeful ghosts, and deities that wield the mighty powers of nature, these stories and mythical figures emphasize the importance of humans living harmoniously with their surroundings. It is often said that in order to understand a country’s culture and history, one needs to simply look at the stories they tell about the world around them.

Here are 22 charming Japanese Fairy Tales, translated by Yei Theodora Ozaki, including "My Lord Bag of Rice", "The Tongue-Cut Sparrow", "The Story of Urashima Taro, the Fisher Lad", "The Farmer and the Badger", "The Shinansha, or the South Pointing Carriage", "The Adventures of Kintaro, the Golden Boy", "The Story of Princess Hase", "The Story of the Man Who Did Not Wish to Die", "The Bamboo-Cutter and the Moonchild", "The Mirror of Matsuyama", and more.

Step into the tranquil and profound world of Shinto with "Shinto: A Beginner's Guide." This book is your gateway to exploring the ancient spirituality that lies at the heart of Japan's cultural and natural beauty. Discover the Essence of Shinto: Unveil the mysteries of Shinto, where every mountain, river, and tree is imbued with the sacred presence of kami. Learn how these spirits influence and guide the daily lives of those who honor them. This guide makes the complex philosophy of Shinto accessible and engaging, allowing you to integrate its wisdom into your own life. Immerse in Cultural ...

Discover fascinating ancient Japanese fairy tales as well as the folk tales of the Ainu/Aino. The first book in this collection, titled Japanese Fairy Tales, was written by Iwaya Sazanami and translated by Yei Theodora Ozaki, a 20th-century translator of Japanese short stories and fairy tales. The second book in this collection is a rare one that is not usually available in audio format: Aino Folk-Tales by Basil Chamberlain, one of the most prominent British Japanologists active in Japan during the latter half of the 19th century.

Listeners of this book will gain a clear understanding of what makes the Japanese, and their society, tick.

This Pulitzer Prize-winning history of World War II chronicles the dramatic rise and fall of the Japanese empire, from the invasion of Manchuria and China to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Told from the Japanese perspective, The Rising Sun is, in the author’s words, "a factual saga of people caught up in the flood of the most overwhelming war of mankind, told as it happened - muddled, ennobling, disgraceful, frustrating, full of paradox."

Japan is a single nation, but its origins are so old, and often, so fragmented, that unified mythology and folklore can be difficult to point to. Still, there are some key texts, tales, and characters we can focus on which will give us a pretty good sense of Japanese mythology. In this audiobook, you'll discover stories of mystery, horror, and romance while simultaneously learning about the Japanese culture.

Vampires: murderous creatures in the shape of humans, they stalk the night feeding on the blood of innocents. Seemingly immortal, they can be destroyed only by the use of a stake through the heart, severing of their heads, or exposure to sunlight. By the year AD 12,090, vampires have ruled the Earth for almost 300 years, and it is only these weaknesses that have kept these foul monsters from totally overrunning the world. But what happens when those rules no longer apply?

Nikki is a horror novelist. Her choice of career is dictated by an obsessive compulsive disorder that forces her to write stories of death and destruction. She can't control it, doesn't understand it, but can use it to make money anywhere in the world. Currently "anywhere" is in Japan, hiding from her mother who sees Nikki's OCD as proof she's mentally unstable. Nikki's fragile peace starts to fall apart when the police arrest her for the murder of an American expatriate. Someone killed him with a blender.

Japanese culture has fascinated the West ever since the country’s doors opened up in the 1800s. In many ways, Japan has remained elusive, and people have travelled from all around the world to see for themselves how unique this nation remains. Another way of exploring this enigmatic culture is through its literature. The English language succeeds surprisingly well in revealing the Japanese sense of life.

Kitsune are fox spirits that take on human form and play tricks on people. One such man fell in love with a kitsune disguised as a beautiful woman.

長く語り継がれてきたにほんのむかし話は、時代が変わっても日本人ならきっと誰しもが一度は耳にしています。心あたたまる話からちょっと残酷な話までありますが、どの話にも、そこにはずっと昔から語り継がれるだけの意味があります。誰もが根底に持っている日本人の心とも言うべきにほんのむかし話を、もう一度、音で感じてみてはいかがでしょうか。大人になった今、改めて聴いても、子どもに聴かせてあげても、そこにはきっと素敵な出会いがあることでしょう。それでは、オーディオブック「にほんのむかし話」をお楽しみください。 ※本作品は発表時の時代背景により、今日の社会では一般的でなく、不適切と思われる表現が含まれている箇所がございます。しかし作品のオリジナル性を最大限に尊重し、当時のまま忠実に再現することを優先いたしました。

After Englishman John Blackthorne is lost at sea, he awakens in a place few Europeans know of and even fewer have seen—Nippon. Thrust into the closed society that is seventeenth-century Japan, a land where the line between life and death is razor-thin, Blackthorne must negotiate not only a foreign people, with unknown customs and language, but also his own definitions of morality, truth, and freedom. As internal political strife and a clash of cultures lead to seemingly inevitable conflict, Blackthorne’s loyalty and strength of character are tested by both passion and loss.

Tamamo grew up in the imperial court, where the space between words mattered more than the words themselves, where battles were fought with poetry. As the favored of the Emperor Junnin, Tamamo knew well how poetry could cut. As the adopted daughter of a once-great noble family, she had no business loving the emperor, nor should he had loved her. After all, that was for the prominent Fujiwara family to decide. It didn't help that she also had a secret: She was a fox. Outside the capital, poetry had been exchanged for sharpened steel. Determined to return to power, the former empress and her ...

●世界中で愛されている「むかしばなし」を集めて100話にまとめました。
朗読されているお話はどれも、一度は聴いたことがある有名なお話ばかりです。
日本のお話からは「ももたろう」や「かぐや姫」、世界のお話からは「大きなカブ」や「三匹のこぶた」。イソップ・グリム・アンデルセンの三大童話からも幅広く収録。その他に、落語の元になったお話や、ちょっと珍しいアフリカや東南アジアの不思議なむかしばなしもご用意しています。

●1日1話、おやすみ前に。たっぷり100話入りです。
おやすみ前にお子様と一緒に聴いて楽しんだり、行楽地にお出かけの際にカーステレオで流したり。耳で聴くことで記憶に残りやすく、綺麗な日本語を自然と学べます。

●お子様の想像力を刺激し、日本語を聴く力を育てるCDです。
お子様が集中して聴けるよう、お話は1話5分～10分程度。プロとして活躍する朗読家や声優、アナウンサー、ナレーター達が感情豊かに読み上げます。また、楽しい音楽や効果音が入っているので、たくさん聴いても楽しめる音源となっています。

ももたろう
ぶんぶく茶がま
びょうぶのとらたいじ
かもとりごんべえ
どちらが大うそつき?
三年ねたろう
あたまに柿の木

ハリー・ポッターは孤児。意地悪な従兄にいじめられながら11歳の誕生日を迎えようとしたとき、ホグワーツ魔法学校からの入学許可証が届き、自分が魔法使いだと知る。キングズ・クロス駅、9と4分の3番線から紅色の汽車に乗り、ハリーは未知の世界へ。ハリーを待ち受けていたのは、夢と、冒険、友情、そして自分の生い立ちをめぐるミステリー。

本作はイギリス人によって英語で書かれた、ベルギーを舞台とした物語である。が、イギリス人にもベルギー人にも知られていない。子供を一人死なせるような物語は受け入れがたいらしい。「十五にもなってなぜ自分の人生を切り開こうとしなかったか」とも感じるようだ。しかしネロの正直さひたむきさは日本人の琴線を揺さぶる。　―—菊池寛の訳でどうぞ。

世界中の昔話の中から、名作10話を、お子様にも分かりやすい様、再編集してお届けいたします。いっしょに聴いて、いっしょに読んで。お子様の豊かな心を育てる、昔話集です。【収録内容】・大きなカブ― おじいさんが、大きな大きなカブを作りました。しかし、あまりに大きすぎて、おじいさん一人では抜けません。おばあさんも呼んで引っ張りますが、全く抜けそうにありません。。・おばあさんと山のヤギ― おじいさんと大ゲンカをしたおばあさんは、家を飛び出してしまいました。気づけば日も暮れてしまい、困ってしまったおばあさんは、近くに見えた山の小屋を訪れます。その小屋には、不思議なヤギたちが住んでいたのでした。・ネコがごはんのあとで顔をあらうわけ― ネコはご飯の後に顔を洗う真似をします。なぜ顔を洗うようになったのか、それにはこんな訳があったのでした。・王さまの耳はロバの耳― ある国に、絶対に帽子を取らない王様がいました。この国では、床屋さんが王さまのお城に呼ばれると帰ってこないことで有名でして、最後の床屋さんの男はいつ自分もお城に呼ばれるかとビクビクしていました。・キツネとえもの― ある日、魚がたくさん釣れた釣り人が上機嫌で歩いていると、道のむこうにキツネがたおれていました。釣り人はキツネがすでに死んでいると思いこみ、魚をいれたびくの上にキツネをのせて、家に帰ったのでした。・ウィリアム・テル―...