Warriors of Old Japan, and Other Stories

RUSHED UPON THE MONSTER AND QUICKLY DESPATCHED HIM
The kind reception given to The Japanese Fairy Book has encouraged me to venture on a second volume of stories from Japan. I have invented none of these stories. They are taken from many different sources, and in clothing them with an English dress my work has been that of adapter rather than translator. In picturesqueness of conception Japanese stories yield the palm to none. And they are rich in quaint expressions and dainty conceits. But they are apt to be written in a style almost too bald. This defect the professional story-teller remedies by colouring his story as he tells it. In the same way I have tried to brighten the rather bare structure of a story, where it seemed to need such treatment; with touches of local colour in order to give emphasis to the narrative, and at the same time make the story more attractive to the foreign reader. Whether I have succeeded or not, the reader must judge for himself. I shall be satisfied if in some small measure I have been able to do for Japanese folk-lore what Andrew Lang has done for folk-lore in general, and if the tales in their English dress are found to retain the essential features of Japanese stories.
Miss Fusa Okamoto and Mr. Taketaro Matsuda, my brother, Nobumori Ozaki, and one or two friends have given me help in translation.
For the introductory note I am indebted to Mr. J.H. Gubbins, C.M.G., of the British Embassy, Tokyo.
Most of the illustrations have been drawn by Mr. Shusui Okakura, of the Peers' College, to whose painstaking and patient collaboration grateful acknowledgment is due. A few of the pictures were drawn by Mr. Tsutsui, of the Jiji Shimbun, and some of the historical pictures by Mr. Kokuho Utagawa and Mr. Tosen Toda.
Yei Theodora Ozaki.
Those who three years ago welcomed the appearance of The Japanese Fairy Book will be grateful to Madame Ozaki for the new treat afforded in the present volume. The Japanese Fairy Book appealed alike to the child, in or out of the nursery, to the student of folk-lore, and to the lover of things Japanese. To all of these the stories here told will come as old friends with new faces.