Arishima's only collection of original short stories for children, published
one year before his suicide. It was dedicated to his three children. The
illustrations and binding were done by Arishima himself. It can be regarded
as a sort of a gift from a father to his children.
"Hitofusa no Budô" is Arishima's first work for children. It is based on his own experience of his school days. The first person protagonist is good at painting. He is very sorry that he cannot reproduce the blue color of the sea and the vivid red of a ship with his own paint. One day, he steals two colors from the belongings of Jim, his classmate. Jim notices the loss and brings the thief to a teacher. She calmly reprimands him, gives a bunch of grapes, and tells him to come to school the next day. The next day, he does not want to go to school, but when he goes to school, Jim receives him warmly. The teacher divides a bunch of grapes into two and gives each to Jim and his artistic and nameless classmate.
This collection attracted people's attention not only because it was
written by a famous novelist but because Arishima described a child's mind
based on his own childhood. He said in a newspaper article that when looking
back one's childhood, everyone should remember some event with the feeling
that without it, he or she might be a better person. In each of the three
stories based his own experience, a child's shame, fear for loss, or egoism
was vividly described from the viewpoint of a child. A reprint of the original
edition was published by Holp Shuppan in 1971. |
