"KAGUYA" has been selected as the nickname for the SELENE from amongst the 11,595 applications received and 2,256 different suggested nicknames. "KAGUYA" originates from "Kaguya-hime (Princess Kaguya)" in The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (Taketori Monogatari)* and many people overlapped the images of SELENE going to the Moon on an exploration mission and Kaguya-hime going back to the Moon.
Top Three Suggested Nicknames
* "Taketori Monogatari," in which Kaguya-hime is the main character, is familiar to many Japanese as the oldest Japanese classic story from ancient times. It has been translated into several languages.
Simple Outline of "Taketori Monogatari"
One day, an old bamboo cutter found a beautiful girl in a shining bamboo. The beautiful girl was named "Kaguya-hime" (Princess "KAGUYA,") and the old man ("OKINA" in old Japanese) and his wife (an old woman, "OUNA") brought her up with great care. As she grew up, many men proposed to marry her, but Kaguya-hime asked them to perform impossible tasks to prove their love and rejected their marriage proposals. On the night of a harvest moon, Kaguya-hime returns to the Moon with people who appear from the sky.
Top Three Suggested Nicknames
| 1st: Kaguya (Suggested by 1,701 applicants) |
| 2nd: Kaguya-hime |
| 3rd: Usagi (Rabbit) |
* "Taketori Monogatari," in which Kaguya-hime is the main character, is familiar to many Japanese as the oldest Japanese classic story from ancient times. It has been translated into several languages.
Simple Outline of "Taketori Monogatari"
One day, an old bamboo cutter found a beautiful girl in a shining bamboo. The beautiful girl was named "Kaguya-hime" (Princess "KAGUYA,") and the old man ("OKINA" in old Japanese) and his wife (an old woman, "OUNA") brought her up with great care. As she grew up, many men proposed to marry her, but Kaguya-hime asked them to perform impossible tasks to prove their love and rejected their marriage proposals. On the night of a harvest moon, Kaguya-hime returns to the Moon with people who appear from the sky.