Night Train to the Stars: beloved, enigmatic Japanese folk tales

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This book is also heavily mentioned and referenced in the anime Hanbun no Tsuki ga Noboru Sora ( Looking Up at the Half-Moon), as a book that Akiba Rika's father gave to her. The religious nature of this story is more evident in Strong’s translation than in Sigrist and Stroud’s. Some of the differences may be less meaningful to the Western reader. For example, in “The Milky Way Festiva The vast emptiness of space is reminiscent of the Buddhist concept of Sunyata ~ the true nature of reality. The train that crosses this vast emptiness is the vehicle ( yana) that transports one to heaven. JR East to name C58 train currently being restored "SL Ginga" - entering service next spring]. Mainichi.jp (in Japanese). Japan: The Mainichi Newspapers. 6 November 2013. Archived from the original on 2013-12-14 . Retrieved 6 November 2013.

In the otome game Hatoful Boyfriend, and its sequel Holiday Star, the novel has been referred to both in the dialogue of the first game and served as the basis of the main plot in the second.

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The connection between Giovanni’s best friend Campanella and Kenji’s best friend Hosaka is obvious. Giovanni wants Campanella to accompany him on his spiritual journey, but Campanella will not journey with him “ all the way to the end” (104) just as Hosaka would not join Kenji in becoming a Nichiren Buddhist. In this fable, which has the quality of a jataka tale, the scorpion makes a bodhisattva vow and becomes a fire to light the darkness. With the Bird Catcher, Giovanni feels the first stirring of the compassion that will inspire his own bodhisattva vow.

Suzuki, Sadami (January 14, 2004). "Japanese Studies Today, and two proposals to synthesize natural and human sciences". The 9th International Symposium on Internationalization of Basic Researches in Japan. Hayama: Sokendai. In the manga Act-Age, the main character, Yonagi Kei, and other secondary characters perform a theatre play version of the story, with Kei as Campanella.In several decades of translating Japanese into English, few works have given me so much pleasure (and hard work) as the tales of Miyazawa Kenji [...] more genuine originality, and a more universal appeal, than almost anything else I have done.' John Bester, translator

Here Kenji combines two visions of the heavens ~ that of Buddhist cosmology and that of the science of astronomy. There are myriad Buddha worlds, but they cannot be seen by the unenlightened. Are they out there? In the other galaxies? In the vastness of space? Are the spirits of the dead there? Is his late sister, his beloved Toshiko, there? The translation by Joseph Sigrist and D. M. Stroud differs most noticeably from that of Sarah M. Strong by including some passages from the earlier draft. Strong also includes these earlier passages, but she puts them in a separate section of her book, omitting them from the main text. When Kenji became a Nichiren Buddhist, he became a passionate proselytizer for the faith. Before his conversion, he was a Jodo Buddhist like his family. Jodo Buddhists worship the celestial Buddha Amida and pray to be reborn in the paradise of his Pure Land. After his conversion, Kenji wanted to convert his family from Jodo Buddhism to Nichiren Buddhism. This was a source of constant tension between Kenji and his family. Ohyama, Takashi (December 30, 1997). 「宮沢賢治受容史年表」からの報告(1). 賢治研究 (in Japanese). 74. ISSN 0913-5197. Archived from the original on November 15, 2002 . Retrieved 2007-07-29.However, other differences in translation are obvious even to the reader with no knowledge of Japanese religion or philosophy. Consider the following. Strong’s translation choices ~ “ the real heaven,” “ the divine will,” and “ forever” ~ better convey the religious message of the story than Sigrist and Stroud’s choices. I honestly adored the metaphors that Miyazawa brought and his stories are intended to put moral values in the real world, but he used animals instead. Almost all of his stories have talking animals and woods that can communicate with people and in one way, it served a good medium as these stories are mostly written for children.