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Across the cooler months in Japan, chances are you’ll hear the phrase, dokusho no aki (読書の秋), which interprets roughly to “Autumn is for studying”. In Niigata, not solely are you able to expertise nature’s breathtaking show of seasonal foliage, but in addition a formidable choice of tales from the “Father of Fashionable Kids’s Literature”.
Niigata-native Mimei Ogawa has been bestowed the lordly moniker of “The Hans Christian Andersen of Japan”. Excessive reward certainly. Equally to Mr. Andersen, Mimei Ogawa’s 1,200 authentic tales, whereas meant for native kids, have grown past their hometown and into the hearts of readers in every single place.
The facility of the pen
Mimei Ogawa’s beginnings began on April 7, 1882, within the present space of Saiwaicho, Takada Metropolis. As if already destined for greatness, Mimei’s father, a staunch admirer of native daimyo Uesugi Kenshin, constructed the revered Kasugayama Shrine, with some assist from his influential buddies. Therefore, younger Mimei’s teenage years have been spent wandering and enjoying across the pastoral Kasugayama space from the impressionable ages of 15 to twenty.
In 1901, Mimei Ogawa’s writing profession started after assembly his influential instructor, Tsubouchi Shōyō, at Tokyo’s prestigious Waseda College. Whereas a pupil, Ogawa’s first story, Wandering Baby, was revealed within the pre-war literary journal New Novel and the expertise clearly should’ve lit a fireplace below his sandals. In 1907, Ogawa’s first assortment of brief tales, Shujin, hit the cabinets. In line with a postcard to a buddy round this time, we discover some encouraging phrases from Ogawa himself:
“Life shouldn’t be a one-way street to enchancment, and mustn’t cease after one defeat. “
Mimei Ogawa’s profession ran parallel to Japan’s Taisho interval, a time the place waves of latest concepts and actions have been flooding the nation. It was this environment, from 1910 to 1928, that Ogawa penned a few of his greatest work and—to our nice fortune—gave up on novels to focus solely on fairy tales.
Required studying
Any reader well-versed in Ogawa’s catalog will inform you with out hesitation that his tales hardly ever finish properly. Nearly all of them are both bitter-sweet, or lack any sweetness in any respect, like your grandfather’s espresso. Nonetheless, the next titles are a few of the most adorable:
The Cow Lady (1919): Based mostly among the many mountains in his beloved Echigo province, Ogawa paints a crushing ghost story of the love between a deaf and mute lady dressed a black kimono and her prodigal son. Finest learn with tissues in hand.
The Wild Rose (1920): A heartbreaking chronicle about conflict whereby two troopers of opposing armies meet on their potential borders and witness the great thing about the blossoming roses that develop between them throughout a short time of peace. Heavy stuff. A stone monument with textual content from the story will be discovered behind Joetsu’s Otemachi Elementary faculty.
“That is the border removed from the capital…. Simply on the border, there was a wild rose that nobody had planted…”
The Mermaid and the Purple Candles (1921): A far cry from Disney’s or Andersen’s mermaid, it is a cautionary story of the risks of fast financial achieve, and one among Ogawa’s hottest tales. An orphaned mermaid’s distinctive candle-painting expertise carry an aged couple riches, however when a grasping salesman convinces them to promote the poor mermaid, the city shortly falls into damage. Heavy stuff certainly. I’m not crying…you are.
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The story continues
Mimei Ogawa carried his beliefs into the Showa interval and thru the upheaval of conflict. In 1946, he established the Kids’s Literature Affiliation, turning into its first president in 1949. Nevertheless, after World Battle II, Ogawa’s signature method of mixing humanism and social injustice into his fairy tales got here below hearth, as they appeared to be an excessive amount of of a bummer for contemporary kids. Regardless of the criticism, he by no means wavered. In reality, it was his stalwart perception that kids have been simply as delicate as adults to the trials of humanity that transcended his fables from the superficial into the profound.
These within the celebrated writer’s catalog can see, learn and recognize his tales on the Ogawa Mimei Museum of Literature, positioned contained in the Takada Library in Joetsu. Or, if museums aren’t actually your factor, merely go to the Takada library, try an Ogawa traditional and revel in it beneath a tree bursting with autumn reds, golds and yellows. Dokusho no aki.
Getting there
Deal with: Niigata Joetsu-shi Motoshirocho 8-30, Takada Library (Takada Park)
Admission: Free
Josh Furr
Joshua first got here to Japan along with his household over 10 years in the past and it utterly ruined his life (in the perfect of how). When he’s not attempting to go the JLPT, he’s researching Japanese historical past, having fun with 80s J-Pop and dreaming of 牛丼. He’s presently writing, writing, writing…largely about Japan and video video games.
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