Miyazawa's first and only collection of stories for children published
during his lifetime. When it was published, it attracted little attention,
but now Miyazawa is regarded as one of the greatest Japanese writers for
children who created modern fairy tales based on religion, science, other
ideologies, and with his own view of the world.
This collection was called "Ihatov Stories for Children" by the author. According to the advertisement he made, "Ihatov" means Iwate Prefecture in northern Japan as a dreamland. He wished his home country Iwate, where people lived hard lives at that time, to be a dreamland.
"Chûmon no Ooi Ryôri Ten" was about two young hunters
from Tokyo who get lost in the mountains. They find a western-style restaurant
and go in. It has many rooms, and the door of each room has a notice. Following
the "orders" like "please leave your guns here" or
"please put this cream on your body" on each notice, they expect
to eat a good meal with upper class people. However, the restaurant is
run by a wild cat who intends to eat the visitors. The "orders"
are for preparing them to be cooked. The hunters narrowly escape, but the
wrinkles on their faces, the mark of their fear, never disappears even
after they return to Tokyo. In this story, the hunters, who kill animals
for mere amusement, suddenly face the horror of being killed themselves.
Arrogant city people are strongly criticized. Eight other stories, all
originally written, are in this collection. |
