The Story#
A long, long time ago, in Japan, a bamboo cutter named Taketori-no-oku found a little girl in a bamboo stalk.
She was very small, like a fingerling fish. She grew up very fast!
“Taketori-no-oku, please take care of me,” the little girl said.
She ate only three grains of rice a day, but she was very healthy.
One day, the little girl said: “I’m not from this world. My real home is on the moon.”
She showed the bamboo cutter a shining object.
“Take this to the moon,” she said. “I’ll come back for it.”
The bamboo cutter took the object to the moon palace.
The moon goddess saw it and called Kaguya-hime back.
“Whoosh!”
Kaguya-hime floated up to the sky.
The bamboo cutter cried, but he knew she had to go back.
From then on, the bamboo cutter planted bamboo every day, hoping to see her again.
Little friends, Kaguya-hime is a beautiful story about a girl who had to return to her home in the sky.
What the Story Teaches Us#
Kaguya-hime had to leave her human family to return to her true home. This story teaches us that sometimes we must say goodbye, but memories stay with us forever.