Beneath the Moon

by Yoshi Yoshitani

  Copyright © 2020 by Yoshi Yoshitani

  All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

  www.tenspeed.com

  Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Yoshitani, Yoshi, artist.

  Title: Beneath the moon : fairy tales, myths, and divine stories from around the world / Yoshi Yoshitani.

  Other titles: Fairy tales, myths, and divine stories from around the world

  Description: First Edition. | California : Ten Speed Press, 2020. | Includes index.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2020001866 (print) | LCCN 2020001867 (ebook) | ISBN 9781984857224 (Hardcover) | ISBN 9781984857231 (eBook)

  Subjects: LCSH: Folklore. | Mythology.

  Classification: LCC GR71 .B464 2020 (print) | LCC GR71 (ebook) | DDC 398—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020001866 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020001867

  Hardcover ISBN 9781984857224

  Ebook ISBN 9781984857231

  rhid_prh_5.5.0_c0_r0

  Contents

  INTRODUCTION

  Scheherazade of 1001 Nights

  The Nightingale

  Sleeping Beauty

  Anansi

  White Buffalo Woman

  The Little Mermaid

  Crane Wife

  Timbó Tree

  Mohini and Aravan

  Alexander the Great and the Gordian Knot

  Our Lady of Guadalupe

  Tam Lin

  The Monkey King, Sun Wukong

  The Pandavas

  Yemoja

  Osiris, Set, and Isis

  Rapunzel

  Coyote

  Princess Kaguya

  The Legend of the Watermelon

  Condor’s Wife

  Oedipus and the Oracle at Delphi

  Aladdin

  Fenrir

  The Snow Queen

  Turandot

  Waramurungundju

  Nanahuatzin

  The Phoenix

  Yennenga

  Banjhakri and Banjhakrini

  Jack and the Beanstalk

  Princess Parizade

  The Legend of Hinemoa and Tutanekai

  The Woman Who Was Kind to Insects

  The Boy and the Dragon Pearl

  Mwindo

  Tale of Tàj al-Mulúk and the Princess Dunyà

  Boitatá

  Tatterhood

  King Arthur

  Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara

  Beaivi-nieida

  Sedna

  Vasilisa the Beautiful

  Amhaeng-eosa

  La Llorona

  Six Swans

  Pele

  Hang Tuah

  Druids and the White Stag

  Enkidu and Gilgamesh

  Hah-nu-nah, the World Turtle

  Sita of the Ramayana

  The Beauty and the Beast

  The Little Match Girl

  Donkeyskin

  John Henry

  Apsaras

  The Bear King, Valemon

  Rainbow Crow

  Bakunawa and the Seven Moons

  Sun God, Ra

  Matsuo’s Sake

  The Enchanted Pig

  The Three Princesses of Whiteland

  Julnar the Sea-Born

  Heitsi-Eibib

  The Magic Paintbrush

  Rhpisunt

  Danae and Perseus

  Moses

  Griffin

  Sister Alyonushka and Brother Ivanushka

  Janus

  Halibu the Hunter

  Pan Hu

  The Fairy Godmother

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  INDEX

  Introduction

  I grew up caught between two cultures. My paternal side was from Japan—they ate rice with pickled plums and decorated their walls with woodblock prints of Shinto shrines. My maternal side came to America on the Mayflower—they ate meatloaf and decorated their walls with keys from their old family farm in Rhode Island. So often my two halves felt irreconcilably different, but the one thing they had in common was their love of stories.

  From my paternal side I heard the fairy tales of Princess Kaguya, Peach Momotaro, and Journey to the West. From my maternal side I heard the stories of Cinderella, Puss in Boots, and Jack and the Beanstalk. While the settings were very different for these stories, the themes of bright young adventurers, forbidden doors, and promised lands were paralleled in many of them. I came to appreciate that my two very different heritages shared much in common in their hearts. Books of myths and fairy tales became a way for me to appreciate every part of me.

  My experience of a mixed household is becoming increasingly common with each generation. Families raise their children in cultures different from the ones the parents grew up in, and more families blend together to create whole new experiences. As people are becoming progressively multidimensional and label-defying, it is ever more important to expand our understanding of each other. And the best way I have learned to appreciate differences and similarities is through stories.

  This collection of stories is meant to serve as a small window into many different cultures. The average reader will recognize a few but many more will be unfamiliar. Some readers will see two or more pieces of themselves never seen together before. Many readers will discover new favorites. As much as possible I’ve tried to indicate each story’s point of origin, but many stories are hard to pin down, especially those that traveled through trading thoroughfares such as the Silk Road. These stories may have been told in one culture about another culture or originated in yet a third culture. These mixes are confusing but ultimately reflect more about the storyteller, and inspire the stories we will tell tomorrow.

  Finally, those familiar with the tarot will recognize repeating symbols such as cups, swords, coins, and staves in the imagery, and these seventy-eight illustrations form a tarot deck and booklet I created called the Tarot of the Divine. Like the tarot cards, each of these stories is equally relevant, and each offers valuable insights to the human experience.

  I hope you enjoy this collection and leave wanting to learn even more about each other, all of us living beneath the same moon.

  Scheherazade of 1001 Nights

  TURKEY, ARABIC FOLKTALE

  There once was a sultan who, upon his death, divided his domain between his two sons, Shahryar and Shah Zaman, and into two kingdoms. The brothers married two beautiful women and left to rule their respective domains. Although they lived far apart, they were still the best of friends and visited each other often.

  One time when Shah Zaman was visiting Shahryar, Shahryar noticed how unhappy his brother was. When asked the reason, Shah Zaman confessed he had caught his wife cheating on him with another man, and in his rage, he had killed both his wife and the other man. Now suspicious of women, Shah Zaman discovered that Shahryar’s wife was also cheating on Shahryar. Shahryar was furious. He ordered the execution of his wife and from then on married a new woman each night and killed her each morning before she could betray him.

  The kingdom trembled in fear of Shahryar’s wrath, until Scheherazade, the vizier’s daughter, volunteered to become Shahryar’s wife. When her night came, she cleverly asked Shahrya
r for one last wish, to see her younger sister, Dunyazad. Upon arrival, Dunyazad, prompted by her sister beforehand, begged Scheherazade for a story.

  By the light of the moon, Scheherazade told a story so witty and interesting that when dawn broke and the story was only half done, Shahryar allowed her to live another night to finish her story. In this way, Scheherazade spent 1001 nights telling stories that were romantic, epic, moralistic, ridiculous, and righteous. Through these stories, Shahryar forgot his hate, became a compassionate monarch again, and relearned how to love with Scheherazade. He taught these lessons to his brother, Shah Zaman, who also forgave, and eventually married Dunyazad.

  The Nightingale

  CHINA, DANISH FAIRY TALE

  Once long ago, the Emperor of China lived in a beautiful palace surrounded by beautiful gardens. Many travelers came to see the grandeur of his domain, but all agreed the most beautiful thing in the entire empire was not within the walls of the palace but in the nearby forest. For that is where the Nightingale sang with a voice so sweet and pure that all who listened could not help but stop and sigh. But though all the travelers knew this, the Emperor of China did not.

  So it came as a great surprise to him when he read about the Nightingale in some books sent to him by the Emperor of Japan. The Emperor of China quickly summoned his courtiers and ordered them to bring the Nightingale before him. But none of his courtiers knew of the bird, nor did any of their subordinates. Finally, they found a young kitchen girl who declared she knew where the Nightingale roosted. She led the courtiers to the woods, and when they found the Nightingale, they asked her to return with them. She politely agreed.

  That night the little bird was presented before the Emperor, who was surprised by her drab gray appearance. But when she began to sing, the entire court cried upon hearing the beauty of her voice. She was given a golden cage and tied with a golden string, and every day she sang for the Emperor and all his court.

  Then one day a gift from the Emperor of Japan arrived. It was a beautiful gold-and-jewel-encrusted mechanical singing bird, and the court loved it even more than they loved the little Nightingale. The true bird disappeared, and the Emperor wound up the mechanical bird over and over. But eventually the golden bird broke and the Emperor grew sick. Lying alone on his deathbed, the Emperor waited in silence as Death approached him. It was then that the little Nightingale returned and sang a song so sweet that even Death was moved and let the Emperor live.

  The Emperor thanked the Nightingale and tried to restore her to her gilded cage, but the Nightingale said that she would rather remain free to visit. And so she and the Emperor remained friends for all their days.

  Sleeping Beauty

  ITALY, ITALIAN FAIRY TALE

  Once upon a time, there were a king and queen who, after many years of wishing for a child, were finally blessed with a baby girl. Seven good fairies were invited to a giant party in celebration. But the royal family forgot to invite the eighth fairy, and she became furious. While six of the seven good fairies gave the baby princess gifts of beauty and virtue, the eighth evil fairy cursed her to die by pricking her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel. The last of the seven good fairies couldn’t reverse the spell. Instead she changed the spell so that instead of dying, the princess would fall into a deep sleep and not wake until she was kissed by a true prince.

  Fearing for his daughter’s life, the king ordered every spindle in the kingdom burned. This precaution worked for sixteen years, until one day, while the king and queen were out, the princess found an old woman spinning wool in a forgotten part of the castle. Curious, the princess approached the spindle and accidentally pricked her finger. When the king and queen returned, she was already deeply asleep.

  Saddened, the king and queen ordered the princess be laid in the most beautiful bed in the tallest tower. Then the good fairies returned and put the whole castle to sleep and grew thorns and brambles all around to protect it. And so the castle and all its inhabitants lay dormant for a hundred years until a curious young prince finally approached it.

  The prince had heard rumors of the sleeping princess, and he dared to battle the brambles and scale the high walls all the way up to the princess in the tallest tower. The prince was mesmerized by her beauty, and with his kiss, she awoke. They fell in love, and as they descended the stairs, the rest of the castle woke up, too. They were soon wed, started a family together, and lived happily ever after.

  Anansi

  GHANA, AKAN MYTHOLOGY

  Anansi was a tricksy spider who would constantly get himself in and out of trouble. There are many, many stories of Anansi and the mischief he caused, but one of the most famous is Anansi and All the World’s Stories.

  In the beginning of the world, the Sky-Father, Nyame, had all of the world’s stories locked up possessively. Anansi the Spider thought that this was very boring. He used his sticky string to climb all the way up in the sky to Nyame’s home and asked him to sell his stories. Nyame was impressed with the Spider for reaching him when no other animal could, but he still refused to sell the stories. After debating for a while, Nyame finally agreed to give Anansi the stories if he captured and brought back the four most dangerous creatures in the world: Onini the Python, Osebo the Leopard, the Mmoboro Hornets, and the invisible Mmoatia.

  With Onini, Anansi pretended to doubt the python’s true length. He then offered to tie him straight to a stick to measure him, which subdued the python. With Osebo, Anansi dug a pit that the leopard fell into. He then offered him webbing to climb out and hopelessly tangled the giant cat in his string. With the Mmoboro Hornets, Anansi faked a rainstorm. He then offered them safety inside a hollowed-out gourd, capturing them. With the Mmoatia, Anansi made a sticky doll that ate sweets. He then manipulated the doll into being so rude that the Mmoatia slapped the doll and got stuck.

  Anansi returned to Nyame with Onini tied to a stick, Osebo caught in his web, the Mmoboro trapped inside the stoppered gourd, and the Mmoatia glued to a sticky doll. Nyame had to concede defeat and made Anansi the Master of All Stories.

  Note: Anansi’s outfit here is a Kente cloth with the pattern that reads “obi nkye obi kwan mu si,” meaning, “sooner or later you will get into the path of the other.”

  White Buffalo Woman

  NORTH DAKOTA, LAKOTA DEITY

  Long ago, there was no game to be found, and the Lakota Sioux were starving. The chief of the Lakota kept sending out scouts farther and farther, until one day, two of his scouts saw a beautiful young woman in white buckskin. She approached them by floating instead of walking, which caused one of the men to perceive she was waken, or holy, and deserved to be treated with respect and deference. The other man only lusted after her. He approached her arrogantly and treated her with impudence, desiring to make her his wife.

  When he touched her, he was surrounded by a cloud of white smoke. When the smoke cloud finally dispersed, only a pile of bones was left where the man had previously stood. The first man quaked in fear, but the beautiful woman reassured him, for she saw no ill motives in his heart. She told him in his own language to go back and tell his people that she was coming. The young man returned to his people and called for a council, preparing for the arrival of the divine woman.

  After four days, a white buffalo calf approached and rolled over four times. It turned black, then yellow, then red, and finally into the beautiful White Buffalo Woman. She stayed with the people for four days, teaching them sacred songs, dances, and ceremonies and giving them counsel on living as a people. On the last day, she gave the people the chanunpa, or sacred pipe, to cultivate peace and understanding. She taught them the correct prayers and taught everyone their place and roles in the sacred hoop of life. Finally she left, rolling on the ground four times. She turned into a yellow buffalo, a red buffalo, a black buffalo, and finally a white buffalo calf. As she disappeared over the horizon, a large herd of buffalo appeared, and their bodies supplied the Lakota with
everything they needed. White Buffalo Woman taught that by uniting the earthly with the divine, all that was needed would be provided.

  The Little Mermaid

  DENMARK, DANISH FAIRY TALE

  There once was a little mermaid princess who lived in a beautiful castle beneath the sea. And although she had many beautiful things, what she wished for most of all was to see all the things on the earth above the waves where her fins couldn’t take her.

  One day, while the little mermaid was swimming close to a passing ship, she happened to see a handsome prince walking the deck. She was instantly charmed by his good looks and sweet disposition and then worried by the ominous storm that approached his ship.

  The vessel tried its best to withstand the storm but eventually broke apart on the crashing waves. After the weather calmed, the little mermaid found the prince’s unconscious body floating in the debris and bore him back to land.

  Leaving him safely on a beach, the little mermaid saw another girl run to his body and wake him. His first smile was for the girl, not the little mermaid, and this made the little mermaid miserable. She returned to her sea kingdom and sought the aid of the witch who lived there. She told the witch that she wanted to walk on land. The witch tried to dissuade her, telling the little mermaid her feet and legs would always hurt. The witch also warned that the magic required that the mermaid gain the love of a human; otherwise, she would die and turn into sea foam. The little mermaid agreed. As payment for the spell, the witch took the mermaid’s voice in exchange for turning her tail into legs.

  Walking for the first time on land, the little mermaid soon found her prince, fully recovered from the shipwreck. But in that time, he had fallen in love with the girl who found him on the beach. The prince befriended the little mermaid, but without a voice, she couldn’t tell him who had actually saved him. She could only watch as he married the girl, and she, still loving him, died and turned into sea foam.