The failed marriage proposals of the five princes in Taketorimonogatari (henceforth Take) take up half of the chapters in Take and while the five princes are rejected by Kaguyahime in their request for marriage, Take does not end here. Instead, the plot of the story is carried to a new peak. Critics generally agree that the transformation of Take's artistic status from that of a Literature of Narrative to a Literature of Monogatari lies in the passages depicting the arrival of the emperor, the ”bride-kidnapping” and the ascension of Kaguyahime. However, the author of thisarticle considers the arrival of the emperor following the failed marriage proposals of the five princes and later on the emperor's proposal to Kaguyahime (resulting in the ”bride-kidnapping”) as superfluous, and thus obscuring the theme of the story. By analyzing the ”bride-kidnapping” episode and interpretating related passages of ”killing” in Take, this article examines the motives behind the creativity of the author.
Through the analysis of the ”bride-kidnapping” episode and the interpretation of passages related to ”kill” in Take, the author points out the flaws in the ”bride-kidnapping” passage and that the gratefulness of Kuguyahime is not connected to her relationship with the emperor. Then the author analyzes the five techniques utilized in the ”bride-kidnapping” episode, namely exaggeration, expansion, repetition, sarcasm, and extremism, to examine the rest of the novel. The author concludes by suggesting that these five techniques have successfully transformed Take from a traditional folktale to a modern suspense novel.
