Yoshitoshi 芳年: The Shining Princess Returns to the Moon; Bamboo Cutter つきの百姿 月宮迎

Artist: Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892) 芳年 Title: Received Back into Moon Palace: Bamboo Cutter つきの百姿 月宮迎 Series: One Hundred Aspects of the Moon 月百姿 Date: 1888 The Bamboo Cutter falls to his knees as he bids a heartbreaking farewell to his adoptive daughter, who is actually the daughter of Joga, the Queen of the Moon. The Bamboo Cutter and his wife had raised the girl as their own ever since he found her as a baby hidden inside a large bamboo stem, shining from within with an otherworldly radiance. The couple named her “Kaguyahime”, Shining Princess, and she grew up to be extraordinarily beautiful. The emperor himself tried to woo her, but she explained that she was the daughter of the Queen of the Moon and that she had been sent down to earth for 20 years as a punishment for disobeying her mother, and it that it would soon be time for her to return to her heavenly realm. Here we see the moment where she must say good bye to her earthly father, and he falls to his knees in despair. Th