The Moon Song and Other Stories

A prince who loves the moon discovers a forest full of flower-crowned spirits. Village children sing beside a bonfire and try to catch the great old man who laughs from its smoke. A monkey dances for rice, then leads his neighbors toward a mysterious spring. In the final story, a grieving conjurer receives a gift that can make soap bubbles take any shape—but the gift has a cost.

The Moon Song and Other Stories brings together four complete tales by Toyoshima Yoshio, first published in Japanese children’s magazines between 1919 and 1926. Their wonders are small enough to fit inside a paper bag and large enough to change a kingdom. Songs and comic dances sit beside questions of gratitude, loneliness, and what happens when people lose touch with the natural world.

Toyoshima, a Japanese novelist and writer of children’s literature, gives these stories a storyteller’s warmth without removing their sadness. This new English translation preserves all four tales, their numbered sections, and their songs, with brief notes on unfamiliar objects and expressions. AI-assisted translation.