The Woman of the Lake and Other Tales

A young man offers bread to a woman who rises from a mountain lake. A hunter takes a shining garment from a sister of the stars. A boy’s talking horse warns him not to gather golden feathers—but the feathers are too beautiful to leave behind.

In these tales, gifts carry conditions, longing crosses the boundaries of earth and sky, and a careless touch or a disobedient act can change an entire family’s life. Magical voyages, impossible demands, and unexpected helpers fill The Golden Bird, while the two women’s stories mingle wonder with the ache of separation.

The collection closes on a gentler scale, with two cooing companions recording a baby’s growth in little red notebooks. Suzuki Miekichi, founder of the children’s magazine Akai Tori, gives both enchanted adventures and household memories a warm, direct storytelling voice. These four complete works, first published between 1916 and 1918, appear here in a new English translation with a translator’s note, brief endnotes, and source details.