Kaze to Ki no Uta is an early collection of short stories by Awa Naoko (1943 - 1993). It consists of eight stories that first appeared in the coterie magazines Mejiro Jido Bungaku [Mejiro Children's Lietarature] and Kaizoku [Pirates]. In those stories everyday life and the supernatural world mixed together, and young people's adoration and the absurdity of life are described. Especially "Kitsune no Mado" [A Window of a Fox] and "Tori" [A Bird] are included in Japanese textbooks and widely read.
"Sanshokko" [A Spirit of a Japanese Pepper Tree], which received
the Japan Association of Writers for Children Newcomer Prize, is about
the first love of Santarô and the unrequited love of the spirit of
a Japanese pepper tree. Santarô and Suzuna have been friends since
childhood, but poor Santarô can do nothing but see Suzuna off going
to a neighbor village to be the wife of a rich man. The love of the spirit
of Japanese pepper tree was not received by Santarô.
In "Kitsune no Mado," a lonely young man meets a boy fox
in a field of Chinese bellflowers. The fox dyes the thumbs and the forefingers
of the man in blue. When he makes a window with these fingers, he can see
nostalgic people or scenery, like the house he used to live in or a girl
who was a good friend in his childhood. He is very glad, but, he thoughtlessly
washes the hands, and the window is lost.
The influence of the Grimm Brothers, Andersen, and Miyazawa Kenji can
be seen in these works. The important element of Awa's stories is, however,
the color described in them: the green in "Sanshokko," the blue
in "Kitsune no Mado," and so on. Awa herself said that she wrote
a story to express one single image, even when she had no story or theme.
Yamamuro Shizuka said in the comment added to this book that the world
of these stories is rather small, but these small worlds were generally
welcomed by readers, and this book received the Shôgakukan Award
for Children's Books and Publications in 1973.
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