Kubota's first collection of drama for children. It is also the first collection of drama with literary value. (Nakagawa Kajô's dramas in the Noh farce style were more for entertainment.) Kubota began his career as a writer while still a student at Keio University. He contributed several stories for children to the magazine Akai Tori [Red Bird]. With the recommendation of Suzuki Miekichi, the editor of Akai Tori, he started writing dramas for children. 23 plays out of 44 that appeared in Akai Tori were written by Kubota.
In 1920, three years after the foundation of Akai Tori, Suzuki began publishing Akai Tori no Hon [Books of Red Bird] series in thirteen volumes. Each book contains the work of a single author only. Fukuro to Kodomo is the fifth volume, and it consists of six works, four of which first appeared in Akai Tori. Kubota's plays are based on the works from abroad, which allows the author to use his imagination freely, to make the conversation more dynamic, and to build up a dramatic plot. "Fukuro to Kodomo" is about two children who are going to help their father as brownies help their master. "Toshi Arasoi" ["Conflict among Months"] is about the New Year spirit who asks twelve months to keep the world together so that each child can enjoy his or her own favorite season at any time. However, this new plan does not work out well, and, in the end, the New Year spirit asks each month to come in order as before. These two works are contained in many later collections of drama for children. These two, together with Kitakaze no Kureta Teburu Kake [Table Cloth Given by North Wind], are Kubota's best works. A reprint was published by Holp Shuppan in 1969. |
