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Bero-Dashi Chomma is a collection of twenty-eight short stories of Saito Ryusuke (1917-85) serialized in the Teachers’ Union organ Kyoiku Shinbun [Education Newspaper], except “Hachirô” [Hachirô] which first appeared in a newspaper for junior high school students. It is a representative work of original folktale style. In this collection, stories are classified in three ways: “Very Big Stories,” “Very Small Stories,” and “Stories Written in the Sky.” It seems that they were originally intended for grownups and teachers. The book received Shogakukan Award for Children’s Books and Publications in 1968. 　　The title piece “Bero-Dashi Chomma” belongs to “Very Big Stories.” Set in the Edo period, it is a story about twelve-year-old Chômatsu and his family. Chômatsu’s father requested the shogunate to lighten the burden of land tax. As a punishment, the entire family was sentenced to death by crucifixion. In order to make his three-year-old sister Ume laugh so she will not get frightened, Chômatsu makes a comical face by pulling his eyebrows down and poking out his tongue on the cross. He kept poking out his tongue till he died. 　　“Hachirô” which also belongs to “Very Big Stories” is a story based on the legend of a giant in Hachirôgata lagoon in Akita Prefecture. A very big man Hachirô throws himself into the water to save rice fields from a billow. 　　Saito used dialects and onomatopoeia freely to make the narrative vivid and rich. Simple plot, profound theme, and Takidaira Jiro’s powerful and unique illustrations using paper cutouts attracted readers. “Hachiro” and other short stories were made into picture book illustrated by Takidaira and produced a folktale picture book boom. 　　“Mochi Mochi no Ki” [Mochi Mochi Tree] belongs to “Very Small Stories.” Mameta was so timid that he could not go to the toilet alone at night. One night, his grandfather has a stomachache and Mameta runs for the doctor holding back his fear. When he came back he sees fantastic lights on a big horse chestnut in front of their house which he called Mochi Moch tree. This story was also made into a picture book with Takidaira’s illustrations, and it has been adopted in third graders textbooks since 1977. It was made into an animation film in 1973 and a kamishibai (picture-story show) in 2001. 　　A Kadokawa Pocket Book edition of Bero-Dashi Chomma was published in 1976. Although there were arguments both for and against the theme of self-sacrifice, it certainly is a distinguished work in the history of children’s literature.