A To Z Challenge 2023: Folk Tale And Myth In Fiction - J Is For Japan

 So far, I’ve mostly written about books set in Europe, but there are plenty inspired by Asian mythology and folklore, some “what ifs”.  Today I will just talk about a few I have read, set in Japan orca fantasy version of Japan. 

The Tomoe Gozen trilogy by Jessica Amanda Salmonson was published in the 1980s, but is now available in ebook on Amazon and in audiobook on Apple Books, as The Disfavored Hero. The heroine, Tomoe Gozen, was a real person from the 12th century, written into a fantasy novel full of Japanese mythical creatures. She was a female samurai; I slotted her into an iMovie presentation for my Year 8 class when one of my students asked if there were female knights. There were, in Japan. And if you want to add fantasy stuff to her adventures, why not? I haven’t read it in years, but now I think I will go back for a reread. 

Aussie children’s author Gillian Rubinstein wrote the Tales Of The Otori series under the pseudonym Lian Hearn. They were YA/adult. I admit I have so far only read the first book, Across The Nightingale Floor, but it was an impressive read, based on the premise that, in this alternative world, the spies/assassins we call ninja really could do magic, something believed of them in the real world. They couldn’t , of course, they were just very, very good at what they did. 

It’s set in what in our world would be the Sengoku period, which lasted from about the 15th to 17th centuries. By the way, a nightingale floor was a floor designed to make a noise when you walked across it, a security measure. Ninja had ways of getting across them without making a noise.

If you’re interested it’s still in print and easily available. 

Kara Dalkey wrote The Nightingale for a series of novels based on fairy tales. This was originally a Hans Christian Andersen story. The original fairy tale was set in China. To refresh your memory, the Chinese Emperor is befriended by a small bird, the nightingale, who sings for him and soothes him when he can’t sleep. He then replaces his live bird with a mechanical one, which can’t save him when he needs it. 

Kara Dalkey changes the setting to Japan. The nightingale of the title is not a bird, but a young woman, Uguisu, who plays the flute beautifully instead of singing. The artificial nightingale is another woman, a courtesan who is not what she seems. It is available in ebook on Kindle. 

Aussie children’s author Ruth Manley’s trilogy with a Japanese setting is The Plum Rain Scroll, The Dragon Stone and The Peony Lantern. It’s also the hardest to find, alas, but well worth looking up on secondhand web site ABEBooks - which will keep sending you a notice any time a copy turns up on its list. Despite the fact that the first book in the trilogy won a CBCA Award, it’s well and truly out of print. 

The series is set in a mediaeval fantasy version of Japan. The hero, Taro, lives in an inn with Uncle Thunder and Aunt Piety. Aunt Piety is a fox spirit who runs a very efficient inn, Uncle Thunder is a nutty inventor, who is more than he seems. 

Before he knows it, Taro is on the run from the evil Lord Marishoten, who is after the Plum-Rain Scroll, which only Aunt Piety can translate, to help him in his plan to take over from the Mikado. He is lucky enough to meet Prince Hachi(Lord Eight Thousand Spears). His other companions include  Hiroshi - an umbrella hating ghost(cursed to haunt an umbrella shop), an Oni monster who loves poetry and a girl called Oboro the Cherry Blossom Princess, and her very unusual dog that isn’t actually a dog. The trilogy is very like Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain - even the name of the hero is similar, Taro and Taran, while Oboro is a lot like Princess Eilonwy. So if you liked that series you will enjoy this!