Tales from the Bamboo Grove by Yoko Kawashima Watkins

First published: 1992; illustrated

Subjects: Family, nature, health and illness, jobs and work, and social issues

Type of work: Short fiction

Recommended Ages: 10-13

Form and Content

Tales from the Bamboo Grove contains Japanese folktales told by the parents of Yoko Kawashima Watkins during her childhood supper times. Gathered in a room with twelve tatami mats and eating from lacquered trays, the author and her siblings treasured the cherished stories passed down by their parents through oral tradition. The book includes an introduction and six tales: “Dragon Princess, Tatsuko”; “The Fox Wife”; “Why Is the Seawater Salty?”; “Yayoi and the Spirit Tree”; “Monkey and Crab”; and “The Grandmother Who Became an Island.” Each tale includes a full-page, black-and-white illustration created with brush and ink on bristol board by Jean and Mou-sien Tseng. The Japanese title of each folktale is incorporated into its accompanying drawing, written by the author in calligraphy.

“Dragon Princess, Tatsuko” tells the story of a lovely young maiden who discovers her beauty and wishes to remain young eternally. She sacrifices her humanness to become a dragon, bringing great emotional turmoil to both she and her mother.

“The Fox Wife” recounts the story of a poor farmer who saves a maiden who has fallen unconscious. After nursing her back to health, she repays the farmer in service, and they eventually marry and have a child. When wife and child fall ill, the husband spends so much time caring for them that he fails to plant his rice crop in a timely manner. The wife performs a miraculous feat to save her husband from financial ruin and plants his entire rice crop. When the husband observes that the rice seedlings are planted upside down, he tells his wife, who, in the form of a fox, quickly replants them. During the replanting, he discovers his wife’s true identity, and she returns to her life as a fox.

“Why Is the Seawater Salty?” explains why the ocean contains salt. A young man and his wife obtain a hand mill that performs any miracle they ask, including producing rice and gold. They use it to bring about good for themselves and the people of their village. The man’s greedy older brother, however, hears about the mill and steals it, escaping by sea. During his escape, he asks the mill to produce salt but does not know how to make it stop. Eventually, the boat fills with salt, and the greedy brother drowns. To this day, the mill continues to produce salt at the bottom of the sea.

“Yayoi and the Spirit Tree” recounts the tale of a poor, hardworking daughter who cares for her ill mother. The Spirit Tree repays the daughter’s kindness by giving her specific instructions that, if followed exactly, will bring her rewards. She follows the instructions exactly and receives doctor’s services and food for a lifetime for her ailing mother.

“Monkey and Crab” is a lesson about greed, punishment, penance, and justice told by way of a greedy monkey and the crabs that he victimizes. “The Grandmother Who Became an Island” is a nature story explaining the origin of summer island rainy days and winter island snow.

Critical Context

Tales from the Bamboo Grove offers young readers an exciting glimpse of Japanese culture and tradition and an opportunity to consider the value of oral tradition. Although there are many single-title traditional Japanese folktales in the canon of juvenile literature, few publications offer a collection of tales with such poignant points of cultural reflection. Many folktales are simply stories of intrigue. For example, Yoshiko Uchida’s The Magic Purse (1993) tells the story of a poor young farmer who wanted to go with his friends to the Iseh Shrine. His passage (and more) is paid by the mysterious maiden in the swamp who wears a silvery blue kimono. They carry on a long-distance romance; he sends gifts of wine and rice cakes to her, and, in return, she sends a gift of a tiny flower and a shiny green leaf floating on a tray down the river. The Magic Purse entertains and intrigues the reader but does not offer the depth of Yoko Kawashima Watkins’ collection. Watkins’ tales not only invite readers to enjoy well-told stories but also encourage them to ponder morality, honesty, hard work, and family values.

The introduction to Tales from the Bamboo Grove describes Watkins’ childhood in the Kawashima household. Watkins’ father, who played an important role in the Japanese military service, was separated from the rest of the family, which lived in Korea during World War II. For Mrs. Kawashima, the physical and emotional demands of the family’s narrow escape from Korea and the shock and horror of finding her own parents and their city completely destroyed were more than she could take, and she soon died in the author’s arms. Even after the war ended, Watkins and her brother and sister were separated from their father, who was still in a prison camp. Thus, it was essential for the author to preserve her childhood memories of the joyful, secure family times around the supper table before the family was torn apart by war.

Two other companion books by Watkins can be read after Tales from the Bamboo Grove. So Far from the Bamboo Grove (1986) and its sequel, My Brother, My Sister, and I (1994), describe her early childhood in the Kawashima household. In So Far from the Bamboo Grove, Watkins gives an autobiographical account of her family’s flight from Korea during World War II, telling the story of the war that destroyed the close-knit family’s “story time” where the author heard the stories recorded in Tales from the Bamboo Grove. My Brother, My Sister, and I describes the attempt of the author and her siblings to reunite with their father, who had passed down to them these treasured folktales.

In the 1990’s, classroom instructors were starting to discover the impact and power of Watkins’ writings as they reflect the love of Asian culture and tradition. Tales from the Bamboo Grove will undoubtedly become a classic collection of folktale literature.