A Treasury of Japanese Folktales: Bilingual English and Japanese Edition

Excellent selection of Japanese folk tales.It's bilingual. Japanese kanji have furigana readings.Colorful illustrations.Used for baby to be's library.

This book truly is a treasure of Japanese stories. My husband was born and raised in Japan and we are raising our children to be fluent in Japanese. This book is so well done and the stories are really classics. The translations are legit. As a non-native Japanese speaker, I struggle to read kanji but this book does a good job at adding furigana to help readers like me get through the Japanese version of the stories. In addition to it being a great learning tool for Japanese, the book overall is high quality. It is big and the illustrations are beautiful. It is a true work of art that our multicultural family will enjoy for years to come.

I bought this book as a baby gift for my Japanese friend. Though I like the idea of the bilingual thing because kids can learn both languages and culture, this book is not a good gift for small kids. Some people would think the story in which a grandma was killed and made into soup and let her husband eat is too cruel for kids..

If you like Japanese culture, then these are great stories for kids. It's nice to know other cultures have similar stories to ours. One such story is that there is a rabbit in the moon rather than a man in the moon and after some explanation, I can "see" the rabbit in the moon as well as the man in the moon. Typical stories of explanations for cultural things, as are most folk tales.

I got this for my husband who is currently learning Japanese. Because it has the English and Japanese text together on the same page, it makes a great learning tool for someone who has learned their hiragana and katagana and is moving on to learning kanji and grammar. It provides the added cultural benefit of teaching classic Japanese stories to someone learning about the culture. The book itself is good quality, the illustrations are beautiful. Definitely recommended.

The book itself is very good quality with nice illustrations. Definitely recommend for beginners with hiragana/katagana knowledge and want to further their learning to kanji. A collection of good Japanese fairy tales.

I bougth this book to present to a teenager who is currently fascinated with Japanese language.The japanese kana in the book are eary enough to read and the additional english version (is not a literal translation) is easy too.I think for a person who is learning japanese is a good way to get introduced to the most known fairy tales of japan.

I loved the illustrations. I bought it as a gift for a Japanese Kindergarten student I know. She loved it. Good way to keep her in touch with her family heritage.

This is such a beautiful book! The English text is written in a delightful style -- easily understood by children, but not childish -- and the illustrations have that traditional charm so sorely lacking in modern books. I love the accompanying Japanese text (the reason I bought it). Having the Japanese and English together makes it a wonderful learning aid for students of either language. I have picked up so much Japanese vocabulary and phrases from this.The book itself is quite large and therefore a bit awkward to carry around on the tube (the only time I get to study), but that does mean that the writing is very clear and easy to read. I love that the furigana is included for most kanji (they did forget some).Whether you want this as a study aid, or just wish to read traditional folk tales, I highly recommend this delightful book!

Glad to find this very useful bi-lingual version of all the favourite traditional tales.

Learning a language is more than just knowing individual words. Think about how someone learning English would be puzzled after hearing that someone has "sour grapes" if they're not familiar with Aesop's Fables. Fully understanding a language involves knowing the cultural history of the people who speak it. That means knowing their stories, their tales, and the history behind the expressions in the language. This book is one more way to immerse yourself in the Japanese culture and has the benefit of being able to compare the Japanese text with the English translation. However, the Japanese text isn't suitable for beginners in the language as it doesn't have the romaji equivalents, so you'll need to know your hiragana / katakana to read the text. Where kanji symbols are used, the text helpfully has the equivalent hiragana / katakana above for easy pronunciation which is a great feature! Of course, you can always just read the English and enjoy the stories for what they are.An exellent book of folktales. I highly recommend it for anyone, but it's particularly well suited for those who are learning written Japanese.

Ich lerne jetzt seit einem guten halben Jahr Japanisch und war auf der Suche nach bilingualen Kinderbüchern, da man beim Lesen ja bekanntlich sehr viel lernt. Dieses große Märchenbuch, ist absolut fantastisch! Die Geschichten sind groß gedruckt und mit vielen bunten Bildern versehen, die das manchmal frustriende Lesen ein wenig auflockern.Kanji sind mit Furigana versehen, sodass man diese mit ein wenig Geduld auch mitlernen kann und keine fundierten Kenntnisse darin braucht.Einzig ein wenig gestört hat mich, dass die japanischen und englischen Sätze nicht immer ganz parallel zueinander waren, sodass man schon wirklich Satz für Satz in jeder Sprache nacheinander lesen musste, um auch wirklich zu wissen, was jetzt zusammengehört - wenn man die Geschichten aber sowieso vom Anfang bis zum Ende liest, stellt das kein großes Hindernis dar.Für den Preis gibt es absolut nichts besseres, jedem der Japanisch lernt/lernen will, kann ich das Buch wirklich empfehlen! (Auch wenn es für's Lesen in der U-Bahn ein wenig zu groß ist :) )

These traditional tales are enjoyable. The half pages top-half English, bottom-half Japanese are well displayed and a good sized font make it easy to read. This is a great book to learn Japanese culture and language.While the paragraphs don't always line up, the English on one page and it's Japanese counterpart on the flip side, it is still easy enough to navigate.Be aware that the English is translated in spirit than in a more closely literate translation. Thus, while a very good adaptation, seeking out the English translation to certain words and phrases will not always be possible. In those moments, make sure you have a dictionary or a grammar book with you.