Sailor Moon (sometimes referred to as Moon Princess ) is an earth-protecting superheroine known for her beauty and charisma.
She was discovered by a bamboo cutter who raised her as his own daughter; later her life story would become the basis of an anime series.
The story of the bamboo cutter
The tale of the bamboo cutter and moon princess is one of Japan’s oldest legends and widely considered its first monogatari (epic narrative in prose), as well as one of its earliest science fiction stories.
This story is an example of Japanese folk tale, combining elements of mythology and traditional culture into an accessible yet beautiful tale about life’s transience. An old bamboo cutter finds an unborn baby within an illuminated stalk of bamboo; he adopts her and raises her as his own daughter.
As she matures, the child becomes an adult woman destined to return to the moon where she was born. Unfortunately, none of her suitors can fulfill her engagement challenge: she requests items like Buddha’s begging bowl, dragon jewelery from their necks, fire-rat skin robes and even cowry shells from swallows!
As the bamboo cutter and his wife began to age, their daughter became increasingly distraught at being forced to leave them for the moon. She wrote letters of apology to both of her parents as well as the Emperor; yet couldn’t find any joy or satisfaction from this endeavor.
But she eventually managed to find some peace and solace by spending time in her foster family’s bamboo forest. There she enjoyed making jewelry and furniture from bamboo; when her old father became sick she even cared for him as best as she could.
Once she had grown, the princess attempted to return to her true home on the moon but was unable to as her people had sent her there to protect her from an inter-Celestial war.
After months of waiting, she finally came to Earth. Both of her parents shed tears but their hearts glowed with love as they held her close and held each other close while crying together and eventually singing again as they went about their daily tasks.
Soon enough, the bamboo cutter and his wife became rich, purchasing a large house for themselves and purchasing another home for their daughter who became a shining princess who dreamt of returning to the moon.
The story of the moon princess
The Moon Princess (Kaguya-hime) was an intriguing figure from early Japanese folklore. Her tale was rooted in Buddhist beliefs about life’s fleeting nature, first recorded during the 9th century.
At her childhood home, the Moon Princess often played outside with her friends under a bright sunlight and loved dancing. But occasionally she felt sad and unhappy, recalling a promise made to visit a black dwarf and fearing she may never get over his terrifying presence.
Her mother, Queen Mother, recognized this was an indefensibly bad request; if granted it could bring such heartbreak that she may never return from it alive to Moon World. Yet Queen Mother stood her ground, and they set sail across jewel-laden heavens; without realizing their request had brought such misery upon themselves that evening.
She became so immersed in her travels that she did not realize that her mother had presented her with such an unusual present. Soon enough she found herself sitting among trees in a forest, when suddenly silver rays from the Moon seemed to shimmer along the ground like millions of sparkling diamonds; it appeared as if an abundance of silver balls had been scattered through it all.
As she began listening, the little Moon Princess heard something enchanting. A soft flutter of wings and sweet melody came tinkling down from a nearby tree; and soon enough hundreds of tiny mockingbirds sang together with such beautiful harmony that it completely entranced her.
This timeless tale, well-loved among elementary students, can provide an engaging reading or listening experience for young readers and listeners. Themes such as beauty, exile and belonging provide useful lessons for young children as well as adults alike. Furthermore, older students studying Japanese literature will appreciate how the tale conveys an appreciation of life’s transience while showing happiness can be found even in small places.
The story of the earth queen
Once upon a time, an old bamboo cutter discovered a beautiful princess named Moon Princess. At roughly seven centimeters tall and stunningly beautiful, her eyes glimmered like the moonlight in the sky while her delicate arms moved like stars across the night sky. He brought her home and treated her like she was his own child.
Every year, the Moon Princess returned home. Her guardian in Earth Kingdom was the emperor, and upon her arrival she left him a letter and bottle of the Elixir of Life as gifts for him. Though she was reluctant to go back alone, according to law she must return each year and visit her own domain – something which gave comfort in being reminded by an Earth Kingdom monarch that her duty lay elsewhere.
As she circled around the great circle with celestial splendor, her heart broke for her daughter – but she knew her son would do what was right and return her safely home.
But the Emperor, who deeply cared about his people, became suspicious of the moon maiden and her potential departure again. To protect her he dispatched guards; but these were blinded when an embassy of luminescent beings came for her.
And then she told him her tale, detailing how she had come from the Moon to Earth as an orphan because her parents could no longer afford to support her; her sister had died prematurely when they were both young.
After the Hundred Year War, Earth Princess Kuei gave birth to Princess Ryoko who would eventually succeed him as Earth King Kuei as ruler of Earth Kingdom. Ryoko opposed her father’s decision to cede land from Earth Kingdom to United Republic of Nations and took issues with this decision personally.
Hou-Ting was an influential figure within the Earth Kingdom during her rule and played an integral part in orchestrating its Harmonic Convergence. She ordered Dai Li to capture Ba Sing Se’s new air Benders so she could incorporate them into her own army.
The story of the black dwarf
Black dwarfs are stellar objects created from the death of stars. Usually found near large, dying stars near their cores, they can be difficult to detect because they emit no heat or light and take millions of years for white dwarfs to cool off and eventually transform into black dwarfs.
At the end of its lifecycle, main sequence stars will exhaust all their hydrogen and helium fuel, leading to its eventual demise in an explosive supernova explosion. Any remaining heat will cool the star down before becoming trapped within it as it cools further and transforms it into a white dwarf; though due to its low mass it is unlikely that any detection attempts would be possible.
Scientists have observed instances when stars can become black dwarfs without burning all of their hydrogen and helium. Scientists estimate these objects take over one quadrillion year to form, yet we still are unable to detect them because they’re so distant from Earth.
As such, black dwarf stars are uncommon and difficult to locate, representing the final stage in a star’s evolutionary path.
Early Japanese folktales were heavily influenced by cultural motifs associated with the moon, beauty, sadness and transience – themes which may explain Kaguya Hime’s tale as Shining Princess of the Moon.
In the story, the moon princess was engaged to be married to an attractive prince but became disillusioned that he might fail to meet her expectations and wanted desperately to marry him for his own sake. Her mother however was firm in her beliefs that no unsuitable match should be given their daughter away as husbands.
At first, the princess had no plans of marrying until she had experienced life on Earth for an entire year – during this period, she went on many exciting adventures and met some terrifying creatures before returning with her parents and guard.