Nankichi Niimi (bottom)

In the previous article, the subjects of Xinmei's works are daily life and ordinary people's life. Miyazawa's famous "restaurant with a lot of requests" (Note の multi-cuisine restaurant), "Cat Office" (Cat's Office), "Acorn and Bobcat" (どんぐりと Bobcat), etc., are all related to cats, of course There are other animals too. As for Xinmei, many of the themes are foxes. This time I will introduce Xinmei's works, two of which are related to foxes, namely "Quan Fox" (ごん fox), "Buy Gloves" (Handbags ををんのランプ), and "Grandpa's Oil Lamp" (おぢいさんのランプ) , "Last year's tree" (last year's wood).

In Japanese society, foxes know how to transform and are cunning. Remember Takahata Hsun's work "Heisei Tanuki He War" (Hong Kong translation "Variety Tanuki"), the fox knows how to transform like a tanuki, but lives among humans by cleverness than a tanuki. But the fox in Xinnan's work is another situation.

"Quan Fox" is a famous work, written at the age of 18 and published in the children's magazine "Red Bird". The story tells that the fox Quan'er went to a human village to forage, and saw a net by the river with an eel in the net. Quan'er wanted to catch the eel with his hands, but was found by the villagers, and when he escaped, he was entangled by the eel. Can run home with eels. Later, it was discovered that the mother, who lived with Bing Shi, died. It turned out that Bing Shi caught the eel to heal his mother. Quan Er regretted what he had done, so he decided to help Soldier Ten. From then on, Quan Er secretly brought chestnuts to Bingshijia. Bing Shi felt very strange. Why did such a strange thing happen? He finally came to the conclusion that the gods helped him. Quan'er didn't mean it, he obviously gave Bing Shi the chestnuts, but Bing Shi didn't come to thank him, it was not worth it.

On the second day, Quan Er continued to bring chestnuts to Bing Shijia quietly:

The next day, Quan'er took chestnuts to the ten soldiers. Bing Shi was twisting the rope in the warehouse. So Quan Er sneaked in through the back door.
At this time, Bing Shi looked at it inadvertently. Isn't that a fox running into the house? Quan'er, the fox thief who stole the eel from before, has made a prank again.
Bing Shi stood up, went to the hut where farm implements were stored, got the hanging musket, and put the gunpowder in it.
Then he crept closer, and with a bang, he hit Quan'er who was about to go out the door. Quan Er fell down with a bang. Soldier Ten ran over. Looking at the house, piles of chestnuts on the muddy ground come into view.
"Oops!" Bing Shi was taken aback, and his eyes fell on Quan'er.
"Quan'er, is that you? Always bring me chestnuts."
Quan'er closed his eyes exhausted and nodded.
The musket that Bing Shi was holding fell from his hand with a bang. A wisp of cyan tobacco was floating out from the muzzle. (pages 73, 74)

Quan'er is greedy and finds out that he has indirectly killed Bing Shi's mother, so he wants to atone for this, and finally died under Bing Shi's spear; Bing Shi thought that Quan'er would play tricks on him again, but later found out the truth, but couldn't save it.

is a tragedy.

Xinmei wrote this story when he was 18 years old. What was his upbringing environment that allowed him to write this children's story related to "Atonement"?

Maybe it had something to do with his situation at the time. He graduated from middle school that year and planned to continue his studies at Okazaki Normal School. Despite excellent grades, the physical examination failed. Xinmei, who has an unyielding personality, was hit hard and kept reflecting in her diary. Perhaps this emotion is projected in literary works.

In addition, the images of Quan Er and Bing Shi are also the projections of Xin Mei: Bing Shi lost his mother, which overlaps with the death of Xin Mei’s mother when he was young; therefore, Quan Er secretly helping Bing Shi is also a kind of desire to be loved and loved The "performance" of caring.

The text used by Xinmei is simple, without any fancy, and there is no regionality, and it is easy for children to read it, so this work is included in Japanese elementary school textbooks, and children from generation to generation have read this story.

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The second part is "Buy Gloves" (handbags を buy い に). The story tells that the mother fox took the little fox to the city to buy gloves because the little fox's hands were cold. But before going to the city to buy gloves, the fox mother turned one hand of the little fox into a human hand, and told the little fox not to stretch out the other hand, because not only would humans not sell gloves to him, but they would also take him away.

The little fox walked slowly to the city, and finally found a hat shop. The little fox told the shop owner to buy gloves. When the store door opened, the little fox felt very dazzling, because of that light, he hurriedly stretched out the hand that should not be stretched out...

How is the result? It's time to sell again. A few hints for everyone, it's a good ending.

In this story, Xinmei mentions how evil human beings are. But after the little fox went through this experience, he found that this was not the case. There is this snippet in the text:

Then it was replaced by a child's voice:
"Mom, on such a cold night, the little fox will cry and scream, it's so cold, right?"
Then came my mother's voice:
"The little foxes in the forest also listen to the song of the female fox, and the raccoon den is going to sleep..." (p. 82)

Indeed, not every human being is like the fox mother said, all are bad people, and it is not good for them, in fact, the most important thing is the heart.

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"Grandpa's Oil Lamp" is very unlike a fairy tale. The story tells that one day Xiaodong took out the oil lamp from the warehouse and was reprimanded by his grandfather. Xiaodong is naturally not happy. In the evening, grandpa told Xiaodong the relationship between the oil lamp and him: it turned out that grandpa used to sell oil lamps. He bought oil lamps from the city and resold them to people in the countryside. Once upon a time, he felt that he had done something meaningful because he brought light to the people of the country.

Just one day, the city began to pull up the wires, and every household switched to electric lights. And what he didn't want to see happened: the villages began to pull up the wires and replace them with electric lights. Grandpa looked at the lights one by one and finally broke them one by one. Grandpa ended the business of selling oil lamps and opened a bookstore instead.

The grandson Xiaodong listened and thought that grandpa was stupid, but grandpa said:

...I want to say this - Japan is making progress, if your old business is useless, you should just give up. Always hold on to dirty and old business, or think that your business is very popular, say that the previous method is better, resent the progress in the world, and never do such a bad thing. ” (page 196)

Grandpa's words are applicable to all generations. However, not everyone can understand it.

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The last article to introduce is "Last Year's Tree"[Note 1]:

A tree and a bird are very good friends. Birds sing on the branches of that tree all day long; and the tree listens to birds singing all day long.
But the cold winter is coming, and the bird has to part with the tree.
"Goodbye, please come and sing to me again next year."
said the tree.
"Okay, you have to wait until then."
After the bird finished speaking, it flew to the south.
Spring is here again, and the snow in the fields and forests is gradually melting.
Birdie went back to the tree where his best friend was last year.
But what's going on here? The tree is not there, only stumps remain.
The bird asked the stump:
"Where is the tree that originally stood here?"
Root said:
"It was chopped down by a woodcutter with an axe and transported to the valley."
Birds fly to the valley.
There is a large factory at the bottom of the valley, and there is a "chirp" sound of sawing wood.
The bird stopped at the door of the factory and asked:
"Mr. Gate, do you know what happened to my good friend tree?"
door says:
"The tree you're talking about has been shredded in the factory, made into matches, and sold to the village over there."
The bird flew to the village again.
There is a little girl by the oil lamp.
So the bird asked her:
"Hey hey hey, do you know where the matches are?"
So the little girl said:
"The match has been burnt out, but the fire lit by the match is still lit in this oil lamp."
The bird stared at the fire of the oil lamp without moving.
Then he sang last year's song to the fire, and the flame swayed and swayed, as if he was happy from the bottom of his heart.
After singing, the bird looked at the flame without moving. Then I don't know where to go. (pages 230-232)

After reading this, my heart is not in the mood. Reminds me of the famous anti-war song: "Where have all the flower gone?"[Note 2]. The deep friendship between birds and trees, compared with the ruthlessness of humans, makes people reflect.

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After reading the whole book, I feel that Japanese children's works are not created for "children". Adults are very suitable for reading, and even feel that they are created for adults. Perhaps these "children" writers have never regarded their own works as children's literature, just as in "The Origin of Modern Japanese Literature" by Hiroya, citing the book "Children's Landmarks" by the Japanese folklorist Kunio Yanagida. It probably means that regardless of the village or the intellectual class, they will see the appearance of children who are "not treated as children" [Note 3].

Whether it is Shinmei Nanyoshi or Miyazawa Kenji, their works always cause readers to reflect on their lives. Especially being an "adult" for too long, some values have been forgotten. Their work just makes people reflect on what is most important.

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Extended information:

[Note 1] "Last year's tree" (original)
https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000121/files/4719_13221.html

[Note 2] Where Have All the Flowers Gone (Wiki)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_Have_All_the_Flowers_Gone%3F

[Note 3] The Origin of Modern Japanese Literature, p. 224

[New Translation] "Fox Haunted!" by Shinmi Nanji (from blog)
https://www.books.com.tw/products/0010767658