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Across the cooler months in Japan, you could 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 additionally a powerful choice of tales from the “Father of Trendy 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 unique tales, whereas meant for native youngsters, have grown past their hometown and into the hearts of readers in all places.
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 Youngster, was printed within the pre-war literary journal New Novel and the expertise clearly should’ve lit a fireplace underneath his sandals. In 1907, Ogawa’s first assortment of brief tales, Shujin, hit the cabinets. Based on a postcard to a pal 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 completely on fairy tales.
Required studying
Any reader well-versed in Ogawa’s catalog will let you know with out hesitation that his tales not often finish nicely. 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 among the most lovable:
The Cow Girl (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 girl dressed a black kimono and her prodigal son. Finest learn with tissues in hand.
The Wild Rose (1920): A heartbreaking chronicle about battle whereby two troopers of opposing armies meet on their potential borders and witness the fantastic 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 could be discovered behind Joetsu’s Otemachi Elementary college.
“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 Pink Candles (1921): A far cry from Disney’s or Andersen’s mermaid, this can be a cautionary story of the hazards of fast financial achieve, and one in all 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 break. 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 battle. In 1946, he established the Kids’s Literature Affiliation, changing into its first president in 1949. Nonetheless, after World Conflict II, Ogawa’s signature strategy of mixing humanism and social injustice into his fairy tales got here underneath hearth, as they gave the impression to be an excessive amount of of a bummer for contemporary youngsters. Regardless of the criticism, he by no means wavered. Actually, it was his stalwart perception that youngsters 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 respect his tales on the Ogawa Mimei Museum of Literature, situated 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
Handle: 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 most effective of the way). When he’s not making an attempt to go the JLPT, he’s researching Japanese historical past, having fun with 80s J-Pop and dreaming of 牛丼. He’s at the moment writing, writing, writing…largely about Japan and video video games.
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