What the Japanese government wanted for children's literature around
1900 is apparent in this book. In order to create new teaching materials
to meet the needs of a government advocating military reinforcement and
the expansion of capitalistic economy, the Ministry of Education invited
academics to enter a story contest for elementary school textbooks in 1906.
Fourteen stories were chosen and, after editing, they were put together into this book. There is a multi-colored frontispiece in front of each story and the book is beautifully bound. A popular edition was published in the same year. "Kasaku monogatari" is a term used for the translation of "fiction" in those days.
Most of the prizewinners were teachers. The stories were didactic, meeting
the needs of the times. For example, "Keiba" ["Horse Racing"]
is a story of a religious service of horse racing by which the ruling village
of neighboring five villages is decided. Each village sends a boy jockey.
In the final race, one boy fell from his horse into a pond, and another
boy helps him, sacrificing his own victory. From 1910 to 1932 "Keiba"
was regularly adopted in elementary textbooks. "Shô Enchô"
["A Little Farmer"] is a story of a boy who decides to devote
his life to agriculture in his depopulated village.
A reprint of the original was published by Holp Shuppan in 1974. |
