Yei Theodora Ozaki

Yei Theodora Ozaki collected many famous Japanese tales in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Her translations into English have proved very popular in the west and are very good. She was the daughter of a Japanese Baron who studied in England and married the daughter of his tutor. Yei lived both in England and later in Japan with her father. She was a lover of art and she soon fell in love with the folk tales of ancient Japan.

Later, when she returned to Europe she was encouraged to take up writing and tell her own versions of the stories from Japan that she loved. Her first book, Japanese Fairy Book, was published in  1903 and is still available today. 

She westernised many features of the stories so they appealed to European children, but in doing so, she probably demonstrated that there is not as many differences between the cultures as people of that time believed. 

Stories such as the Tongue-Cut Sparrow and The Mirror of Matsuyama have been very popular outside of Japan as well as within, where folk tales still make up an important part of the culture.