Translation of: Mukashibanashi to Nihonjin no kokoro.

Includes bibliographical references (page 234).

Though Japanese tourists, businessmen, and products are everywhere visible, their culture remains cloaked and mysterious. This book approaches the haunting, sad and lovely depths of the Japanese soul by interpreting some major themes in fairy tales. The first Jungian analyst in Japan and a senior professor at Kyoto University here addresses such questions as why so few Japanese fairy tales end in a "happily-ever-after" marriage and why the females figure best expresses the culture's ego and the country's possible future. The author compares Japanese and Western tales, throwing into relief the former's idiosyncratic figures and themes. Terrible women who eat people, obscene escapes from the Oni (frightening but sometimes comic demons), brother-sister bonds, undersea dragon palaces, movements between 'worlds': with such elements does Kawai delicately present the multiple layers of the Japanese psyche. -- From publisher's description.

Translation of: Mukashibanashi to Nihonjin no kokoro.

SACFinal081324