The Plum-Rain Scroll

Idzumo #1

by Ruth Manley

The Plum-Rain Scroll has long been missing, but in old Japan, men have forgotten its existence. When the evil Marishoten, the Black Iris Lord, seeks to overthrow the Mikado, and usurp the Chrysanthemum Throne, he first seeks the precious Scroll, to learn the Unanswerable Word - the Word of Power. It is left to two unlikely companions to foil Marishoten's evil Taro, the Odd Job Boy, armed only with a kitchen knife, and Prince Hachi, Lord Eight-Thousand Spears, mounted upon his mare Oikaze, swift as the wind.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Childrens, Fiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[Lyn Elliott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was delighted when i found this book in a library book sale recently because I’ve remembered it ever since I read it at least 30 years ago. Or so I thought.
I had remembered the title, the author and one of the characters (Aunt Piety, a fox woman) but not much else, as it turned out.
Ruth Manley’s years of living in Japan shine through this heroic quest story, in which the young, humble protagonist is accompanied in his adventures by a runaway princess and many characters from Japanese folk tradition as well as celestial wise men, various royal personages and their magical steeds.
It’s sprinkled throughout with Japanese poetry, and retrieving and accurately interpretIng a poem about plum blossom lie at the heart of succeeding in the quest to save the ancient country from the villains.
I’ve noticed that some of the reviews complain about the language. I suspect that this might be Manley’s use of the elaborately polite, self-effacing,archaic and arcane forms of language used in both Japanese and Chinese traditional hierarchical conversational forms. I loved it.
Why only four stars and not five? Occasionally I got a bit bogged down in the complications of who was what, where and when.
But if you enjoy good fiction written for 10 year olds and you see this anywhere, read it!

[Dave Leys · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really wonderful and charming fantasy adventure set in mythic Japan. Written in the late 1970s by the Australian Ruth Manley, who had lived for years in Japan, it combines a deep respect and love of Japanese mythology with a modern, egalitarian sensibility that gives us strong female characters and a modesty of heroism. Funny, thrilling, deeply invested in Japanese mythology and a love of nature with beautiful imagery, this is a hidden gem of the children's fantasy genre.

[Capn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mel Brooks meets Miyazaki

Here's a nice descriptive segment of dialogue from page 146 of my edition:

"What do you mean, 'Such of your friends as may wish to continue'," demanded Beni. "I never heard such highfalutin' flapdoodle! I promised the Tengu on behalf of my Lady I'd see this matter through; and see it through I will, however hopeless it seems to attempt so grave an undertaking along with a crackpot wanderer, a poetry-spouting oni, a ghost who can't even remember the vital clue and can't be relied on not to go beserk if he so much as hears an umbrella mentioned; and a little girl and her dog - though I will admit that they are both of them handy in a fight; not like this pestilential boy, who is forever having to be rescued."

Madcap might be the right word, though Manley is also as precise in her story-telling as any first rate writer of historical fiction. I find this one really hard to encapsulate - I can see why others have thrown around StarWars, The Chronicles of Prydain, and other completely unrelated (and yet strangely alike) works in their reviews of this (tbh, I haven't read Prydain, but there's an 'argumentative motley crew questing together for the greater good' situation). There's definitely a scene with the Freaks (Yokai? She never uses the term, and it's absent from the glossary as well) that reminded me of both Alice in Wonderland and Spirited Away (speaking of which, there's yet another brief scene with drunken Bath-House Monsters singing their way home to bed. Love it). Overall, this story reminded me a lot of Spaceballs, and I can't even begin to explain why. Lord Sweet Potato's name probably had much to do with it.

The inside flap summary here:

'A scroll almost as old as Idzumo, decorated with beautiful paintings of the plum-rain...the gentle, misty rains of spring...'
'And what is written on the scroll, sir, to make it so desirable?'
'Three things. The secret of immortality; the secret of turning baser metals into gold...and the world's greatest secret of all - the Unanswerable Word.'
The Plum-Rain Scroll has long been missing, but in old Japan, men have never forgotten its existence. When the evil Marishoten, the Black Iris Lord, seeks to overthrow the Miakdo and usurp the Chrysanthemum Throne, he first seeks the precious Scroll, to learn the Unanswerable Word - the Word of Power. It is left to two unlikely companions to foil Marishoten's evil design: Taro, the Odd Job Boy, armed only with a kitchen knife, and Prince Hachi, Lord Eight-Thousand-Spears, mounted upon his mare Oikaze, swift as the wind. Determind to find the Scroll before Marishoten, they embark upon a perilous adventure. On their way, they are joined by a motley group of new-found friends - Hiroshi the Umbrella Ghost; Tsuki, a poetry-loving Oni; Beni the Roof-Watcher; Oboro, the Cherry-Blossom Princess and Tama, her faithful shaggy pet; and Lord Sweet Potato with Baku, the Dream-eater. Together they pit their wits against the wicked forces of the Black Iris, plunging into desperate encounters and helped on their way by such august personages as Inari-san, the Lord of Growing Things, and the King of the Freaks. Weaving their separate ways throughout the story are Aunt Piety, the sharp-tongued Lady-into-Fox and her arrogant husband, Uncle Thunder... and it is Aunt Piety's unpredictable power of magic which creates an utterly unexpected ending this this fantastic saga, steeped in the traditions of Japanese folklore, in which humour, beauty, excitement, and sheer story-telling power are skilfully combined.

Parts of this story is "pour-quoi" in style, like an Ananzi Spider tale. I don't want to say which parts, but we've got the origin of foodstuffs (or two?), geographical features, the origin of a Japanese martial art, and a commonplace invention that I probably shouldn't hint at (but you'll guess at it from the opening pages). ;) There are more mythological creatures here than you can swing a wakizashi at, and anyone with knowledge of Japanese mythology would have fun, I think, checking off known Yokai and various other magical creatures (Kitsune, Tengu, etc.). There's even a fairy here who makes a cameo or two, and I'm sure it's hinting at some legend I ought to know but don't.

I'm actually rounding up from a 4.5 here - this is a very special book, one certainly worth tracking down OR REPUBLISHING, OR TURNING INTO AN ANIMATED MOVIE - I'M HINTING AT YOU, STUDIO GHIBLI! If anyone does republish it or, dare I dream, animate this, I command you to include Uncle Thunder's various addresses to his househould (and especially Aunt Piety) as they are written: "Good morning, stupid wife, unworthy nephew and useless farmhand." I giggled my way through every "ugly wife" comment - and if you think this sounds very misogynistic and out-dated, which it is, I would implore you to read the full story and characters of Uncle Thunder and Aunt Piety in context and see why it's just so hilarious and cannot change. I think Uncle Thunder might be my favourite character, but only in the necessary contrast provided by Aunt Piety, who has to be my second favourite. Taro, as other reviewers have pointed out, isn't very dynamic and is hard to relate to. And there were many character relationships I found predictable, and some predictability in the story, as well. I also felt that sometimes the seams between Mel Brooks-like comedy, picturesque Mizayaki, and serious fantasy quest novel were strained and could have been perhaps better melded. I'm not a Chronicles-of-Prydain kind of reader, but there was at least one point where I wanted something just a little more serious and pithy (more like 'The Dark is Rising', I suppose, my favourite series!), and was slightly irritated by more comedic banter. I think it's just really hard to have all these styles running parallel, and she does manage it, so any lumps can certainly be forgiven and overlooked. And they're not major speedbumps or anything - I think this is more of a personal preference point, in terms of flow. Maybe if Taro's character had been more developed, we'd have more to stitch the component pieces together, though I also think he's a little like Link in The Legend of Zelda - as blank a canvas as can be given, so as to allow yourself to picture your own self in his stead. But unlike Link, there doesn't seem to be much predestination or hitherto unknown depths to Taro. He's not some fabulous fighter - he really is a (young) "every man".

But I'm fairly well-read, and I'm in my 40s - this was written for ten year olds. It just says "for children" on the page with the ISBN and the edition info, but I must have read '10+' somewhere. Still.

I also saw that there are two sequels to this. I cringed when I did, because about a quarter of the way through, I thought I'd be obligated to track them down at any cost. Now, I'm not so sure - the story wraps up well, and I don't know where it would go from here. Then again, I'd love more content from such memorable characters... so we'll have to see if the fates allow it. :)

I had a much better review sketched out in my mind, but there's so much happening here, and so many characters, that they've simply bumped whatever plans I had out of my short-term memory. I should also mention that I tracked this down and read it because of the reviews of strangers on Goodreads - the other reviews did this one justice, and I thank those reviewers very much for their contributions. I wouldn't have known about this one, otherwise.

TL:DR - Funny Japanese mythology, almost satirical. Worth republishing. Someone PLEASE send a copy to StudioGhibli.

[Brian Yatman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've just re-read The Plum-Rain Scroll for the first time in 34 years or so (yikes)... and it stands up well. It has its flaws: our protagonist, Taro, is undercooked (we don't get much of a sense of an inner-life and he mainly stands around complaining a lot and voicing his outrage at the latest turn of events), for example, but the book is written with such verve, and so crowded with colourful characters and incident that I can forgive a first-time author. The language is advanced for a kid's book but that didn't put me off the first time round and it certainly doesn't now. It's a story that's stayed with me. Peopled with samurai, highly-strung ghosts, fox-women, harvest gods and freaks, it really sparked my lifelong interest in Japanese culture and folklore. And the illustrations by Marianne Yamaguchi are moody and evocative (and her original cover is just a classic).

It reminds me of The Hobbit and the original Star Wars film - lots of heart, humour, thrills, and bracing strangeness. And it's concise (Manley packs more into a chapter than Robin Hobb fits in a whole freaking book, for instance (I'm struggling through Dragon Keeper right now and it is s-l-o-w). I'm not sure a writer could get away with a work of such brazen cultural ventriloquism now, though. Perhaps that's part of the book's charm.

[KrisAnne · Rating 5 out of 5]

The weirdest thing about this book, set in a mythical, days of yore Japan, is how much it has in common with the Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander, right down to the name of the main character. I never bothered to investigate whether the author's Welsh heritage had anything to do with the way she constructed her motley crew of unlikely heroes, but The Plum-Rain Scroll's characters similarly come together during the course of a journey and a series of adventures to face unspeakable evil. I treasure my hardcover edition of this book, which my aunt brought me from Australia back in her globetrotting days.

[Maria Rowena Getutua · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a random book I bought from Book Sale at Php25. It was actually a pretty good children's book almost like the Chronicles of Narnia.

But instead of goblins, dwarves, centaurs, trolls, witches, and Aslan as their 'god', we have onis, tengus, sennins, bakus with deities in Japanese mythology such as Amaterasu-omi-kami and Inari-sama.

The story was straight forward following the adventure of Taru, an odd-job boy as he meets different creatures along the way as they try to save Idzumo, their country. I enjoyed the story with some Japanese words inserted along the way.

There were just some points where the author's way of writing can get confusing at times. Overall, it was a great fantasy book for light reading.

[hannaH · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my absolute favourite books of all time.

[Simon Yeats · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let me forget about the formalities of plot, characters, and description for a moment.
Let me describe this book in another way.
How much of an impact did reading this book have on my life?
I can tell you exactly where I was when I first saw this book. It was my first day of my last year of 3 at prep boarding school as an 11-year-old. My parents and I were in the library at Toowoomba Prep School, as it was known then, and they asked the librarian if she could recommend a good book for me to read. She found The Plum Rain Scroll and told me it had been voted as Book of the Year the year before. I looked at the book and thought, this is a weird cover.
But I started to read. As an 11-year-old there are not many books that could have my undivided attention, but this one did. I could not put the story down.
I related instantly to Taro, and wanted to believe that my life too would one day lead off to adventure and mystery. I loved the character Lord Sweet Potato, I cannot now remember why, but he was my favourite.
Without giving the ending away, but the moment of the appearance of the ghost character at the end gave me chills and a lump in my throat. It was a moment that I will never forget as having a book actually bring out emotions in me in a way that had never been done before.
I remember my interview with the headmaster of the secondary school I was applying for later that same year. This school required that kids be booked in at birth to be guaranteed a spot. Somehow my dad got me an interview to be accepted 4 months before the start of the school year. The principal asked me what was my favourite book. I immediately started to relate the story of the Plum Rain Scroll and had tears coming down my face as I described the final gripping scene. Against all odds I was accepted to the school.
I read the book again when I was 15. And again when I was 29 and in a hospital in New York City after becoming sick on a cross country flight from Los Angeles that required an abdomen surgery. Each time I read it the book gave me the same uplifting feeling of hope.
I bought this book as a gift to my step kids when they turned 11 and 12.
I would love for my own son to read it one day. I loved the story.

[WildWoila · Rating 3 out of 5]

A whimsical fusion of Japanese folklore with a light seasoning of Western references.

[Ben Chenoweth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favourite books from childhood. A wealth of wonderful characters; many fun and exciting moments; a rich and colourful user of Japanese mythology. Highly recommend!

[Sarah Meehan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it again after many years and it is still wonderful.