Dobunezumi Iro no Machi describes the children and their parents who supported the high growth of the Japanese economy at the bottom of the social ladder. It was highly valued as strongly-motivated realistic children’s literature.
Takeshi is in his first year of junior high school. He lives in Midori
Town, Adachi Ward, Tokyo, where it is dense with small and medium-sized
factories and the sky is dark with soot and smoke. His father is a taxi
driver, who is constantly overworking and his mother is working part-time.
Takeshi prepares supper everyday. His friends are leading a similar kind
of life. Mitsuo, whose father is a peddler and does not come home, tries
to commit a theft at an ironworks. He was found out and admonished by the
people and begins to work part-time there. Rumie has good grades. Her father
has committed suicide, and her mother is working at the station selling
newspapers. When her mother decides to run a bar, Rumie earnestly helps
with her disabled younger brother Ryôichi. Teruo’s father, who was
a subcontractor of a toy factory, committed suicide because an order was
cancelled. Teruo’s family is pressed to leave their rented house. Desparate,
Teruo stabs the landlord with a knife. In school, children’s personality
was warped by the fiercely competitive entrance examinations. Children
then lose an open field, one of their few play yards because of a development
plan. They meet a blind boy Ichirô at the field and become friends,
and search their way to grow up. Meanwhile Mitsuo’s father quits being
a peddler and comes home. Kensuke’s father who has lost his job goes away
to learn about capital and labor. Even when they are badly off, grown-ups
try to work with pride. Families help other families in need.
Kogure’s trust on and expectations of laborers are indicated in the
story. He himself has worked at an ironworks in Adachi Ward.
Kume Kôichi’s illustrations are dynamic and warm, which convey
the atmosphere of the town and the people’s life. Especially, illustrations
on the title page, frontispiece, and table of contents depict the panoramic
and short-range views of the town, which act as an introduction to the
story. Later, when the “Treasured Masterpiece” version was published,
the illustrator was changed to Kan Teruo.
Dobunezumi Iro no Machi was nominated for the Sankei Award for Children’s Books and Publications, and was made into a television drama by NHK in 1963.
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