A collection of verses for children by Satô Yoshimi. Satô is famous for post-war verses like "Inu no Omawarisan" ["A Dog Police Officer"] and "Aisukurimu no Uta" ["The Song of Ice Cream"] which were made into songs and are still being sung by children. It contains 50 verses written from 1921 to 1932 which appeared in children's magazines, mostly in Akai Tori [Red Bird].
The verses are arranged in ten sections from "Hachi no Ie" ["Bees' Home"] to "Minato no Ko" ["Child of the Harbor"]. Each section contains five to six verses. Subjects are mostly small animals, plants and celestial objects, which were not unusual for the times. However, fresh expressions and novel ideas are found here and there. Suzume no Ki can be regarded as the starting point of Satô who composed many verses for little children after World War II. Illustrations by Fukuda Shinsei are line drawings in Indian ink. In 1997, a reprint of the original was published by Ozorasha. |
