You can see the synopsis of Taketori-Monogatari on Wikipedia. In fact, the main character of this story isn't the bamboo cutter but his daughter Kaguya. So this tale is often called "Kaguya-hime"( princess Kaguya)
At the end of the story, Kaguya was taken back to the moon by the emissaries of Moon Empire. Takahata's new movie seems to be the sequel---Kaguya comes back to the earth again---. I'm not sure if it is the ancient age she had lived in the earth or modern age. If Kaguya returns to Tokyo in modern age, its situation might be similar to Disney movie "Enchanted".
Once, producer Suzuki told in his readio show "Ghibli Asemamire", Takahata is struggling in making animation with "sumie" like touch. ---painted with black ink and brush---. Takahata likes "Choju-giga--鳥獣戯画--", which was painted about 800 years ago. It is considered to be the oldest manga in Japan.
picture lowest: Choju-giga
Anyway, I believe it won't be long until Ghibli officially announce about the project.
I've got a picture book of Kaguya-hime--published by Kodansya, 47pages, A5, 1000yen. you can get here---- The painter of this book is Oda kancho (織田観潮 1889-1961). He was a skilled painter of japanese painting. The original book of this was published by Kodansya(講談社) more than 70 years ago. So the painting stile is very oldfashoned. However even now, many people loves its old taste. In this version, there is added English translation which is more detailed than the Japanese text.
All Ghibli fans are looking forward to Takahata Isao's new movie. We haven't seen his film since My neighbor Yamada--1999. Ghibli doesn't say anything about his new film officially. However Suzuki (Ghibli producer) threw out a hint on his radio program Ghibli Asemamire the other day. According to it, Takahata is now working on his new film "Taketori Monogatari". Taketori Monogatari (The Tale of the Bamboo-Cutter, 竹取物語) is the oldest tale in Japan...about 1000 years ago. And it is also one of the most popular tales, like Momotarao or Urashimataro. Everyone of Japanese know the story. So it isn't so attractive if the movie follows the story faithfully. Takahata's Taketori-Monogatari seems to show us the sequel of the original story.
Now a fummy CM which parodies this tale is airing on TV.
It's a deodrant CM. We can see the plot and some main characters in this CM. Though the crane is the guest from another tale "Tsuru no ongaeshi"(The crane returns).
Lawson (2nd largest convenience store chain in Japan) is now doing a campaign to promote their original bakery. On this campaign they give away Ponyo ramen domburi(bowl) to everyone who collects 20 point (about 2000-2500 Yen) I'm going to get 4 or 5 donmbiri during the campaign. So I must eat about 10000 yen of bakery in August.
above : Sosuke and Ponyo are having ramen right upper: Ponyo bowl
We had solar eclipse in Japan today. It was partial eclipse at my place. Thanks to clouds, I was able to take the pictures of crescent-shaped sun. Even the sun was eclipsed 90%, it was too bright to watch with the naked eye.
right 1: I put used color film on the lens as a filter.
right 2: every holes looks crescent-shaped
right 3: when the turner is closer to its shadow, crescents can't be seen.
Moomin characters can be seen here and there still now.
Rakuten-travel--the largest tavel site in Japan--adopts Snufkin(Snus mumrik) as its mascot character. As Snufkin is a kind of vagabond, it's a suitable match.
Sakuma Confectionery has Moomin candy tin. I once posted about Sakuma candy tin of "the grave of fireflies". I hear it is no longer in production, unfortunately. I looked for Moomin candy around shops near by but couldn't find. If you want, it is available on the net shops.
"Geijutsu Shincho"(芸術新潮-art specialty magazin in Japan) featured about Tove Jansson on May issue. In Japan, she is known as the author of Moomin. Moomin was made into anime series some times. The first was 1969 and 2nd was 1972. In 1990, another studio produced another series of Moomin--"Tanoshii Moomin ikka"(Moomine family). Each series got hit and Moomin became a popular character in Japan. Still now it is rebroadcasted again and again. Tove Jansson was born in Finland in 1914 August 9th---just the WW1 began--. Her mother was a Swedish and her literary works were written in Swedish. I don't know if Moomin is popular in many countries except Finland and Japan. How about in your country?
In Japanese official site, you can get wallpapers here.
above: Kagoshima bank is a local bank near my place. It adopts Moomin as its mascot character. Kagoshima bank gives away Moomin calender every year ti its customers. This is one of the page of it---April page.
right upper: Geijutsu Shincho cover page.
right lower : Tove Jansson drew herself and her Moomin characters.
pic above : I found a nice picture of kappa girl on the web. He paints much better than me. This kappa girl has a fishing rod. Kappa's most favorite food is cucumber. So cucumber sushi is called "kappa maki"
pic right: kappa maki----cucumber roll--
There are many folktales, novels, manga and movies about kappa. "Kappa no Coo and to natsuyasumi"(the summer vacation with Coo the kappa --河童のクーと夏休み--) is a recent animation. You can see the trailer here. pic right: Kappa of Coo
A famous sake manufacturer "Kizakura" adopts kappa a mascot of its brand. pic right: Kizakura
There are many kind of imaginary creatures in Japanese lore or folktale. The three major of them are oni, tengu and kappa. Kappa live in rivers. You can see the detail of kappa on wikipedia.
The other day, I visited Ukiha in Fukuoka pref. It's the river area of Chikugo river. Japanese wikipedia says, once there might have lived some troops of kappa around the river area. So there are many lores and report of sightings of kappa here still now. I believe it's a joke of the writer though...
There are many old folk dwelling in Ukiha. I saw some lime plaster relief of kappa on the exterior wall of houses there. People there seem to love kappa very much.
avobe: lime plaster relief upper: the kappa relief is on this old house middle: a barber shop has a plaster relief of barbering kappa
lower: this is a typical style of kappa. Kappa usually has bamboo rod though, I changed it to a harpoon. Kappa dwell in the river and is good at diving. I think harpoon is more suitable than fishing rod. Kappa has a saucer on its head. Kappa always keeps water in it. If the saucer is dried, he loses power or dies. The thing on his back is tortoiseshell.
We had a dog more than 10 years ago. Its name was HACHI, as you can see in my previous post. Checkng old videos I took in those days, I found a funny clip. My daughter, 7 years old then, was playing with my silver salt SLR camera PENTAX. She took HACHI with it and caught a nice shot. Enjoy it.
Silver salt camera have quickly become old-fashioned in this short period. At the same time, the small girl quickly grew up adult.
A brace of swallow built a nest at my office. There are 4 or 5 babies in the nest. The parents fly around and catch insects all day. When the patents return to the nest, as soon as they feed the babies, they leave. So it's not easy to take picture of both parents and babies at a time. Anyway swallows are very industrious.
You can see the synopsis of Taketori-Monogatari on Wikipedia.
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