1 When Taketori Monogatari is said to be the oldest extant ‘literary Japanese tale’, this means that it had an author who created it as an original concept (though the identity of the author is not known), and is thus clearly distinct from folklore or legend. Fujioka, Sakutarou, ‘Taketori Monogatari’ (1905), in Kokubunngakushi Heianchou-hen (A History of Japanese Literature: Heian Period), Vol. I (Tokyo: Koudannsha, 1977), p. 168Google Scholar. Though still older stories are found in Japan, they are regarded as written versions of oral traditions, not as the works of an author. While drawing on legends, the tale is a created work through the amalgamation of these with the author's own ideas. Sakakura, Atsuyoshi, Taketori Monogatari (Tokyo: Iwanami, 2003, first edition 1970), pp. 79–80Google Scholar.

2 For example, the Matsuo Ballet in 1963 (choreography: Akira Kawaji, music: Shigekiyo Koyama), the Tokyo Ballet in 1978 (choreography: Aleksei Varlamov, music: Mikhail Meerovich) and the Star Dancers Ballet produced Kaguyahime.

3 Ishii has also pointed out that Kylián ignored the story on the libretto. Maki Ishii and Masashi Miura, ‘Tamashii no Senritsu, Nikutai no Rizumu’ (The Melody of the Soul, the Rhythm of the Body), Dance Magazine, July 1993, pp. 66–71, here p. 68. But he says, ‘the cause of the success of the ballet would be that though the music concerns the narrativity of Taketori Monogatari, Kylián treated it in an abstract manner’. ‘Talks on the European Production of the Ballet Kaguyahime, by the composer & conductor, Ishii’, Asahi Shinbun, 12 February 1991, evening edition, p. 11.

4 Sayers, Lesley-Anne, ‘Jiří Kylián’, in Bremser, Martha, ed., Fifty Contemporary Choreographers (London and New York: Routledge, 1991), pp. 133–8Google Scholar, here p. 134.

5 Ibid.

6 For the analysis, the following recordings were used: Jiří Kylián, Nederlands Dans Theater, Arthaus Musik GmbH (DVD); Jiří Kylián's Black & White Ballets, Arthaus Musik GmbH (DVD).

7 Comparing Symphony of Psalms to Falling Angels, Sayers, ‘Jiří Kylián’, p. 136, points out that ‘in a very different style we can find a similar musicality and mastery of choral movement’.

8 Precisely speaking, Kaguyahime is considered to be a kind of Daoist immortality tale. Daoism originated in China, but was introduced into Japan, and certain ideas of celestial female Daoist immortal beings originated there. Watsuji, Tetsuro, ‘Otogibanashi toshiteno Taketorimonogatari’ (Taketori Monogatari as a Fairy Tale, 1922), in Watsuji, Watsuji Tetsurou Zenshu (The Complete Works of Tetsurou Watsuji), Vol. IV (Tokyo: Iwanami, 1962), pp. 89–99Google Scholar, here p. 90.

9 Hagoromo legends, which can be found in various regions in Japan, are sometimes called ‘swan-maiden-type myths’. In legends of this type a celestial maiden usually gets married to a human being; however, Kaguyahime does not. Horiuchi has suggested that this is because of the author's intention to try to step out of the legend. Horiuchi, Hideaki, ‘Taketori Monogatari’ in Horiuchi, Hideaki and Akiyama, Ken, eds. Taketori Monogatari/Ise Monogatari, p. 2Google Scholar.

10 The historian Soukichi Tsuda (1873–1961) understood the work as a novel that comically depicts the court nobles in the Heian period (794–1185/1192 CE) pining for a beautiful woman. Arguing against Tsuda's theory, the philosopher Tetsuro Watsuji (1889–1960) writes that the work can be rightly appreciated only if it is read as a fairy tale based on Daoist notions of immortality. Sakutaro Fujioka (1870–1910), a scholar of Japanese literature, stresses that Taketori Monogatari is a literary story, not a legend, and holds that it is a romance, not a novel. Yasunari Kawabata (1899–1972), the Nobel Prize-winning novelist, takes the view that Kaguyahime is neither a fairy tale nor a realistic novel depicting court life, nor a nursery tale, but simply a much-valued work of literature. From this perspective he sees Kaguyahime not as a fairy but as a lovable human maiden, and interprets her ascent to heaven as symbolizing the ascent of a person disappointed at the sublunary world. Tsuda, Soukichi, Bungaku ni arawaretaru Kokumin Shisou no Kenkyu (Researches on Japanese Thought in Literature: The Age of Aristocratic Literature, Written 1916–1921): Tsuda Soukichi Zenshu (The Complete Works of Soukichi Tsuda), Appendix 2 (Tokyo: Iwanami, 1966), p. 222Google Scholar; Watsuji, op. cit., p. 89; Fujioka, op. cit., pp. 167–8; Kawabatai, Yasunari, ‘Taketori Monogatari’ (1932), in Kawabata Yasunari Zenshu (The Complete Works of Yasunari Kawabatai), Vol. XXXII (Tokyo: Shinchousha, 1982), pp. 326–72Google Scholar, here p. 348.

11 At the premiere in Tokyo, Ishii wrote in the programme that a part of the ballet is based on a version of the oral tradition passed down in Yamagata Prefecture, edited by Yasuaki Hangai. But Hangai (personal communication with the author) said that the text was a creation of Hangai himself, an original piece for a radio play, not from the oral tradition in Yamagata. This misunderstanding must have occurred because Hangai is also a person doing research on the oral tradition. According to him, the Kaguyahime orally passed down in Yamagata is the same as the original Taketori Monogatari. Hangai's scenario, Kaguyahime, can be read in Yasuaki, Hangai, Harukanaru Harutsugedori (The Faraway Warbler) (Tokyo: Soufuusha, 1979), pp. 206–15Google Scholar.

12 Ballet, Star Dancers, ed. Star Dancers Ballet ’85 (Tokyo: Programme for November Performance, 1985), p. 16Google Scholar.

13 Ishii, Maki, ‘Baree Kaguyahime no Ongaku ga Umareru made’ (Till the Emergence of the Music for the Ballet Kaguyahime), in Nederlands Dans Theater 1993 (Tokyo: Programme for the performance in Japan, 1992), pp. 34–5Google Scholar, here p. 34.

14 Ishii writes in his libretto for the performance of Kylián's version that the five suitors come from a distant place and they flaunt their wealth and power (as the characters in Star Dancers Ballet's version) in Section III, but that the same people fight with the aristocrats in Section IV as villagers. Such confusions arise because the libretto has been changed, but the five suitors, who dance in the banquet and fight with the aristocrats in Kylián's version, should be villagers. Maki Ishii, ‘Kaguyahime ni tsuite’ (About Kaguyahime), in Nederlands Dans Theater 1993, pp. 14–15.

15 The libretto (action) in Table 1 is an encapsulation of the libretto written by Ishii, ‘Till the Emergence of the Music for the Ballet Kaguyahime’, in the programme for the performance in Japan.

16 Akiyama writes, ‘the Japanese drums and the Western percussion instruments play together without let, making the hall shake with the immensity of their sound. There seems little doubt that this is the loudest piece of ballet music ever composed’. Kuniharu, Akiyama, ‘Monochrome: The Emotional Aesthetic of Japanese Drums and Maki Ishii's “Non-Musical Time,”’ in Ishii-Meinecke, Christa, ed., Sound of West – Sound of East: Maki Ishii's Music, Striding Two Musical Worlds (Celle: Moeck Verlag, 1997), pp. 164–77Google Scholar, here p. 177.

17 For the analysis, the following recording was used: Kaguyahime, KULTUR (DVD).

18 In his discussion on ‘theatricality’, Mori writes, ‘It is a theatrical device to make the audience realize that in theater, reality and function are interwoven in a complicated fashion’. Mori, Mitsuya, ‘The Structure of Theater: A Japanese View of Theatricality’, Substance, 31, 2–3 (2002), pp. 73–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar, here p. 84.