Editing Tanabata (section)

====Human female and Heavenly male====
Professors Masako Satō and [[Noriko T. Reider]] provided a narrative analysis of an ancient tale involving a human female and her future consort, Prince [[Ame-no-wakahiko|Ame-waka-hiko]]. In this tale of the ''[[Otogi-zōshi]]'' genre, the Prince takes the form of a serpent and marries a human woman. He later reveals he is a heavenly deity named Dragon Prince. After some time, he disappears and his human bride must seek him out (akin to the Graeco-Roman myth of [[Cupid and Psyche]]), even reaching the heavenly realm, where his father, an ''[[oni]]'', lives. At the end of this tale, the lovers are forcibly separated by the oni father and can only reunite during the ''Tanabata''.<ref>Satō, Masako. "Transforming an Ancient Myth into a Popular Medieval Tale". In: ''Japan on the Silk Road''. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2017. pp. 339–345. {{doi|10.1163/9789004274310_018}}.</ref><ref>Reider, Noriko T. "A Demon in the Sky: The Tale of Amewakahiko, a Japanese Medieval Story". In: ''Marvels & Tales'' 29, no. 2 (2015): 265–82. Accessed June 28, 2021. {{doi|10.13110/marvelstales.29.2.0265}}.</ref><ref>Reider, Noriko T. "Tale of Amewakahiko (Amewakahiko Sōshi): A Demon in the Sky, a Maiden in Search of Her Husband". In: ''Seven Demon Stories from Medieval Japan''. Boulder, Colorado: University Press of Colorado, 2016. Accessed June 28, 2021. pp. 135–155. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1g04zg4.9.</ref>

Noriko T. Reider draws attention to a second story of this combination: the "Qian Luwei Tale". In this version, the human wife's father is identified as Qian Luwei, and the male deity is Hikoboshi, the son of "Bontennō", [[Brahma]].<ref>Reider, Noriko T. "A Demon in the Sky: The Tale of Amewakahiko, a Japanese Medieval Story". In: ''Marvels & Tales'' 29, no. 2 (2015): 272–274. Accessed June 28, 2021. {{doi|10.13110/marvelstales.29.2.0265}}.</ref>