After the dissolution of the proletarian literature movement, many writers rapidly increased their interests in children's literature around 1935. Tokunaga Sunao, together with Nakano Shigeharu and Tsuboi Sakae, was one of them. He had already announced a story titled "Hoshikunai Yubiwa" ["The Ring I Do Not Want"] in 1930 in the magazine Shônen Senki [Children's Battle Flag]. He contributed many stories to magazines like Shôgaku Gonensei [Fifth-Grader], Shôgaku Rokunensei [Sixth-Grader] and Shôjo no Tomo [Girls' Friend] since 1940.
Jinza-Don no Kusatori is Tokunaga's first anthology of six stories for children. It includes stories like "Ine-Chan" ["Ine-Chan"] which had originally been announced for grown-ups. His attitude to place children's literature as an extension of novels for grown-ups set an example of a new direction for children's writers.
"Jinza-Don no Kusatori" is a story of Jinza-don who could not
be happy because he was idle in weeding. Most of the stories were based
on unforgettable memories of Tokunaga's own childhood. His method to seek
materials in the past was chosen so that both children and grown-ups could
enjoy the story. It was also a passive resistance to Japan's social situation
at that time.
The number of copies of the first edition was 15,000. Stories except for "Tonarigumi no Hatake" ["The Field of the Neighborhood Group"] were published under the title of Nakanakatta Yowamusi [A Weakling Who Did Not Cry] in 1947. |
