#royall tyler

[whilereadingandwalking]

My partner got me Japanese Tales, edited and translated by Royall Tyler, for our trip to Japan this past spring. The volume accompanied me to Tokyo, to the old city of Kyoto, and to a hotel high above Osaka. In fact, it got relatively soaked in Kyoto rain on our visit to the Fushimi Inari shrine, so there's plenty of Japan still deep in its pages. But I didn't finish it in Japan—I finally went back and finished it this month.

Like other reviewers, I have to mention that yes, some of the tales are very dry, while others have strange translation choices, either including overly modern slang or even, Tyler mentions, "summarizing." But these are true folktales, not the spiced up modern fairytales, and Tyler tried to specifically gather tales that had been written down in olden Japan. So this collection really does show a glimpse into the stories that were once told "around the fire," and offers a fascinating look into Japanese folklore. Still, I think the volume could have been shortened—many topics were split in two but I found that Part I almost always had the best tales.

Favorites included different renditions of the girl born of a bamboo shoot, who would inspire Ghibli film The Tale of the Princess Kaguya; a couple ribald tales of tricks and caught-out affairs; many stories of everyday wisdom—the old man or chaotic stranger who turns out to be spirit or magical, my favorite of which was "The Old Mackerel Peddler"; a story where a bunch of men get their "members" stolen when they try to sleep with the magistrate's wife; some lovely fox spirit stories; and many wonderful stories where a person helps a helpless animal (usually a turtle) and gets their good deed well repaid.

Content warnings for sexual assault, pedophilia, animal cruelty, violence, ableism.

[ikusayu-no-hana]

Excerpts from Royall Tyler's lecture on Translating The Tale of Genji, 2003

[thedepartmentofdiscoveries]

Image of A Yōkai Parade aka The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (Hyakki Yagyō) is a thousand-plus-year-old Japanese folkloric tradition, in which a series of demons parades — or explodes — into the ordinary human world which is illustrated here by Yuko Shimizu for "Japanese Tales" (2018) a book of medieval Japanese folk tales, translated by Royall Tyler and bound by The Folio Society.

[very-grownup]

Suddenly, Horse Dung

One evening an imperial bath attendant (a woman) went off on a visit, taking her little son Akoboshi and some friends of his along with her. As twilight fell the boys began a wrestling game outside the house. Suddenly something like a huge curtain (they never did get a good look [at] it) came down over them from the wall they were playing under, and Akoboshi disappeared. The other boys ran off, terrified. They were afraid to tell anyone what had happened.

The woman was very upset when she missed her son and hunted everywhere for him, but in vain. In the middle of the third night after his disappearance there was knocking on her gate. Not daring to open it, she managed to cry out, "Who's there?"

"We want to give you back your son! Open up!"

She was too frightened to obey. Next, she heard voices on her roof and a roar of laughter. Something fell, or was thrown, to the ground. Fighting back her terror, she lit a torch and went for a look. It was Akoboshi, lying limp and still. The only sign of life in him was that he blinked.

She called a healer and his medium. When the medium went into her trance, Akoboshi was suddenly covered with some sort of brownish stuff. It turned out to be horse dung, three bucketfuls of it. Akoboshi never told what had happened to him, but he revived and was still alive ten years or so later.

This happened around 1215. I got this from someone who was there at the time.

- “Japanese Tales”, Royall Tyler

[mysadblacksoul]

Happy Pride month my dudes

[perciver4ever]

RIP Sirius Black, you would've loved Tyler Cohenour from Royal Sugar.

RIP Remus Lupin, you would've loved Charlie and the chocolate factory.

RIP James Potter, you would've loved Percy Weasley x Oliver Wood.

RIP Peter Pettigrew, you would've loved Yo Gaba Gaba!

[emotinalsupportturtle]

SHOUTOUT to Doctor Who for canonically making the entire British Royal Family werewolves

Taking that one little fact that Queen Victoria passed hemophilia down the Royal line and twisting it so that her descendants are werewolves instead with the werewolf gene most likely to fully mature by the 21st century is poetic cinema

[nestito702]

[setfire2rain]

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

Screenshots from the Royal Rogue's Livestream

Disgusted by the Questions

Sure you are 🙄

Thrilled.

[sullista]

⁺ ˳ ⁺ ˳ BELLY (Grass Stains) ˳ ⁺ ˳ ⁺

[the-whispers-of-death]

prince!stone who's father is still the same douchebag, but now way, way more powerful

king!stone who loses his father and now, has the biggest responsibility in the kingdom, which means that now, he needs to have his security increased as well

king!stone who connects a little bit too much with royal guard!reader, a man known dor his excellent skills as a royal guard because he has years of experience

(also this can be so angsty because even knowing that stone is gay he'll be forced to marry a woman to continue the royal family's lineage but we can ignore that for now)

Well, anon, it won't be so angsty, since Stone is a trans man. We'll just have him not have his bottom surgery in this version, which means we can write Stone getting pregnant by Royal Guard!Reader. I mean so there's no angst and oh, look! A Stone who hasn't been kicked out by his father! What a rare version.

King!Stone had to hire an entire new Royal Guard when his father was dead, because if there was anything he learned from his predecessor, it was to be extremely paranoid. So in order to soothe his paranoia, he had to get a Royal Guard that was his. Loyal to him only, not like the old Royal Guard who were loyal to his late father.

In his search for new guards to be on his Royal Guard, he finds you, a soldier who has several years of experience of being the general of the kingdom's military. He had been searching for a new Head of the Royal Guard who was experienced but hadn't been serving under his father and it seemed like you were just the man for the job.

So you are summoned to the throne room, Stone filling out the throne with his burly body as he sits confidently like his late father had. You're reverent towards him, sensing a softness hidden beneath his cold and stoic demeanor. A softness that you wanted to protect.

He is enamored with you, the way you stood tall and strong. The way your words are blunt like his, honest to a fault. He needs someone kind, but someone who was honest. He never trusted those who delved in the niceties, in the fakeness of being polite for the sake of being polite.

He has been listening to so many soldiers pleading their case to join his Royal Guard, most of them kissing his ass because they thought he'd respond better to it, so you are a breath of fresh air. There is a sincerity in your talk of being loyal to him that can't be faked and he likes that about you.

So he is quick to offer you the position, which you so graciously take. He sends one of his best servants to guide you to your new bedchambers, watching you leave the throne room with a hidden glint in his brown eyes. Yes, he had a feeling he would not regret giving you the position of Head Guard.

[teenwolfpackincorrectcaptions]

Lydia: and who knows about this? Stiles: literally no one but you. And the secret service. Derek all happy: oh and I told my sister. Stiles as happy as his boyfriend: oh I didn't know that! Derek that can't stop smiling: yeah and she's really happy for us. Lydia: ...

[very-grownup]

Tateyama, a mountain in Etchu province, has been known since antiquity for its hells. The rugged, sweeping landscape there is desolate, and countless boiling springs gush from deep fissures in the ravines. Even a huge boulder resting on one of these cracks may be set rocking by the water that surges up irresistibly around its base. The heat is terrible, and you come eventually to a column of endless fire. In one valley of this hellish waste there is a waterfall over a hundred feet high that looks like a vast expanse of white cloth.

“Japanese Tales”, Royall Tyler

[wilhelmsbee]

Especially when I have everything I want at hand.

[rafascosmic]

happy pride month y’all 🏳️‍🌈🫶🏻