posted on 09 Jun 2016

The Tale of the Shining Princess by Naoko& Hisako Matsubara

This is a beautiful book published by Kodasha International Ltd, Tokyo in 1966. It was written and illustrated by two sisters who now have huge international reputations, Naoko Matsubara as an artist and Hisako Matsubara as a novelist. 

Even before taking it from its rather faded orange slipcase, I knew that it was a must have for my collection. The much brighter orange textured book cover with its central gold embossed design glowed in contrast and so the delightful experience of enjoying the book began. The intriguing end papers look as if they have real leaves pressed just beneath the surface of the beige and white marbled paper. 

The pages beyond this point are like thick blotting paper which are exactly the right texture for showing off the dramatic woodcuts that illustrate the story. It is apparently a traditional tale based on a character in the renowned Taketori Monogatari  ( The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter) which was originally published in 860AD and is often cited as the first fiction story in Japanese literature.

The illustrations are all densely coloured mostly on a creamy background, some in black, others in green, red and blue, then others are mixture of all of these. All of them dominate the pages in relation to the text which is neatly boxed either to the right or the left, sometimes it feels as if the illustration is pushing it to the side as being less important and it often bleeds splendidly right across both pages. 

There are four spreads against a coloured background which varies the design and I particularly love the one that is golden towards the end of the story which aptly depicts her transformation into immortality.

In the introduction to this book which was her first to be published, Hisako Matsubara explains that she and her sister 'independently but in harmony with each other ... have tried to present our story in a way that would bring out vividly the contemporary Japanese imagery, while still preserving the world of ancient Oriental fairy tales'. 

Finding such a book is the reward for spending all our spare time trawling the charity shops because just occasionally we find one that is very special. I wonder who donated it and why? Was it part of a bigger collection of Japanese literature or an unwanted gift? Whatever the reason, I am glad that it is now in its rightful place on my bookshelf. 

 

Karen Argent

9th June 2016