Sanae Masuda rscj English translation of the original in Japanese. The book has also been translated into Spanish.

In ancient times at the village feasts and festivals, some “wise men” or “wise women” probably told stories. Some stories that captivated people for one reason or another were retold. Stories, with which more than one person could resonate and whose truth and power they felt, were transmitted orally from generation to generation. These stories had energizing power because they were a true portrayal of the dramas going on in people’s hearts, and when a person gets connected with one’s own inner reality, energy wells up from within. They were not philosophical discourses or psychological expositions, but they contained truth and understanding about nature, mankind, and the world. At the very root of the stories was belief in a transcendent power, for which they had as yet no name, but which they experienced in their lives as being closely connected with nature.

In ancient days, probably people did not need much explanation or interpretation as they shared the same way of thinking and expressing themselves. Today we first form concepts of things, find their connections to each other, and draw conclusions or form definitions. But with the ancients, they did not think in an abstract manner; the stories welled up from within. They expressed what they grasped about man and the universe, using concrete details of daily life. Their stories describe how the psyche experienced the physical facts. Therefore, the expression of the ancients was symbolic.

Here in this book I have given my own interpretation of the twelve stories, not because I presumptuously consider myself a wise woman, but because I learnt, as I said before, how to read myths and folktales as inner dramas. What I have written here is very much the fruit of experiencing ancient stories together with the participants of the workshops that I held. However, it is my own personal interpretation, and someone else may get from the stories something totally different, since symbols are many-layered. Like a prism reflecting rays of different colors, so does a symbol evoke various interpretations, not one of which, nor all of which put together, reveals the total significance.

I will be happy if the sharing of my own experience of the folktales of my culture will stimulate your own interpretation resulting from your own experiences. Reading the stories of different cultures led me to the stories of my own people and to respect them. It is my hope that in reading Japanese stories the reader may appreciate more the beauty and wisdom that your ancestors left in their stories.

Sanae Masuda rscj
Province of Japan