Uno Kôji's anthology of short stories for children. Many modern novelists set about writing stories and verses for children from the 1910's to the early 1920's. Uno was one who contributed many stories to children's magazines such as Ryôyû [Good Friends] and Shôjo no Tomo [Girls' Friend]. "Yurikago no Uta no Omoide" ["Memories of Cradle Songs"], which was included in Umi no Yume Yama no Yume, was favorably received due to the protagonist's impressive personality and to the neat style. The story was also included in Uno's other collected works many times. It is one of the representative stories of the period.
Eighteen stories are collected in Umi no Yume Yama no Yume. The author seems to have classified them into four categories: retelling of folktales; stories mainly about boys' ordinary life; folktale-style stories mainly about girls; and moral stories. These categories anticipate the trend of Uno's later work. Especially, his later work "Haru o Tsugeru Tori," ["The Bird which is a Herald of Spring"] arose from the first category.
Bindings are beautifully done by Koide Narashige, a western style painter,
whose works Uno favored. |
