Spotlight on Japan
Over the years Outside In World has received a number of books translated from Japanese by some of Japan’s most well-known authors and illustrators. It is an eclectic mix of titles ranging from board books to young adult fiction. Here, we highlight some of the authors, illustrators and translators who have contributed to bringing these books to an English audience.
Board, Activity and Picture Books for Under 5’s
Board Books
Taro Gomi, one of Japan’s most prolific children’s book illustrators and authors, was awarded the Mildred L. Batchelder Award in 2017 for his book Over The Ocean. Everybody Poos, first published in Japan in 1977, was translated into English by Amanda Mayer Stinchecum in 2004 and is still widely available with its humorous and simple message full of expressive illustrations that adapt perfectly to the awkward nature of the subject. (Frances Lincoln, 2004)
Bus Stops, My Friends and Spring is Here are part of a Board Box Set of three classic books, first published in the 1980s in Japan. Bus Stops takes a daily bus journey full of different things to observe and people to meet along the way while My Friends depicts a little girl learning from her animal friends and Spring is Here introduces young children to the seasons of the year and the cycle of life. Gomi uses simple words and colourful graphics combined with the occasional visual joke. (Chronicle Books, 2011)
JUMP! by award-winning author Tatsuhide Matsuoka has sold over 500,000 copies in Japan. It’s a playful and joyful parade of jumping animals depicted in bright visual artwork that has been translated by Cathy Hirano (Gecko Press, 2019).
Activity Books
The best-selling look-and-search puzzle book Who’s Hiding by Satoru Onishi has been reissued in a new sturdy board book edition. First published in English in 2008 this interactive book with its simple cartoon animals requires readers to look closely at each spread to find which of the 18 different characters are hiding, crying, sleeping, angry or just back to front. (Gecko Press, 2022).
Author and illustrator Masayuki Sebe has created several popular look-and-find activity books full of puzzles and games. Whether it’s identifying ten characters in 100 People (2013) amidst the 100 busy illustrations, following the counting maze in
100 Things (2010) or the dinosaur-themed Dinosaurs Galore (2010), Sebe’s books are full of fun and vibrant artwork. (Gecko Press).
Picture Books
Two recently published titles It’s My Rubber Bandi and Is It Just Me? by Shinsuke Yoshitake and translated by Sofiane Kohen are original and witty stories with simple, expressive language and a mix of pen-and-ink and watercolour artwork. It’s My Rubber Bandi shows the importance for a child of having something of their own, in this instance, a rubber band! Is It Just Me? translated by Rico Komanoya provides lots of humour as it tackles a small but embarrassing issue for a little boy as he sometimes wets himself a little bit and wants to understand – is it just me? (Thames & Hudson, 2022)
Chirri & Chirra, The Rainy Day is the eighth title in the series about ‘Chirri and Chirra’ by Kaya Doi, translated by David Boyd. For Chirri and Chirra, taking a raincheck on any magical excursions for the day is unthinkable; they celebrate a rainy day, complete with cafés only open on days when it rains, rain that falls upside-down, and balloon-sized gummy gumdrops in Doi’s fantastical story. (Enchanted Lion Books, 2021)
Komako Sakai is one of the most popular children's authors and illustrators in Japan. She received the Bratislava World Picture Book Original Painting Exhibition Gold Award for Friday’s Sugar-chan. Saki’s gentle tale about a toddler’s night-time antics in Hannah’s Night (2013) is enhanced by beautiful chalk and charcoal illustrations. Her exquisite brush-stoke artwork is also to be found accompanying LEE’s story The Lost Kitten (2017) about caring for and nurturing an abandoned kitten. Both titles are translated by Cathy Hirano. (Gecko Press).
Two picture books The Tiny King and The Big Princess by award-winning author, illustrator and graphic designer Taro Miura have all the traditional qualities of fairy stories but with a modern twist. The protagonist in The Tiny King is no bigger than a fingertip and lives alone in a huge castle. He’s sad and lonely until he meets the Big Princess when his life changes forever. The Big Princess is the prequel to The Tiny King and tells the story of the Big Princess and how she was discovered by the king of a faraway land finds as a tiny princess on a leaf in his garden. He is overjoyed but what he doesn’t bargain for is that unless he can break the spell the princess will get bigger and bigger each day! Miura writes heart-warming stories about the importance of family and the text is enhanced by humour and the clever use of colour and perspective. (Walker Books, 2014)
Picture Books for 6-8 Upwards
Every Color of Light (2020)and Almost Nothing, Yet Everything (2021) are by Hiroshi Osada, translated by David Boyd and illustrated by Ryōji Arai, and explore the beauty of our natural world. Every Color of Light demonstrates the vastness and changes that take place in the sky with stunning illustrations by Arai of rain pounding down into the lush natural landscape, and the drama of thunder and lightning or sunlight after a storm. Almost Nothing, Yet Everything is structured as a poem about water, where one line is printed at the bottom of each page and Arai’s luscious illustrations of water consume every page. (Enchanted Lion Books)
Young readers will relish in the dreamy images of endless possibilities of the ‘Sato the Rabbit’, a trilogy of stories about a boy-turned-rabbit. Written and illustrated by Yuki Ainoya and translated by Michael Blaskowsky they are full of magical landscapes powered by the imagination. Sato explores his new world conjuring up wondrous adventures in the first of the series Sato the Rabbit (2021); sails in his moon boat in Sato the Rabbit: The Moon (2021)and has a magical journey in a sea of tea in Sato the Rabbit: A Sea of Tea (2022). The charming whimsical artwork perfectly captures the essence of each one of Sato’s fantastical adventures. (Enchanted Lion Books)
Another title illustrated by Ryoji Arai is What What What? by Arata Tendo, translated by David Boyd. Young Pan is bursting with questions. He has an exuberance for life; interested in everything that is going on and is always asking questions in order to satisfy his curiosity. A zany story underpinning a more serious message emphasised by Arai’s expressive illustrations. (Enchanted Lion Books, 2017)
The Bear and the Wildcat by Kazumi Yumoto is an astute and sensitive story dealing with grief, loss, loneliness and depression. When Little Bird dies, Bear is inconsolable. He makes a beautiful box in which he places his friend and carries it with him wherever he goes. Eventually, Bear finally learns how to say goodbye after meeting the wise Wildcat. Beautifully translated by Cathy Hirano with evocative black-and-white illustrations by Kasumi Sakai. (Gecko Press, 2011)
Fiction
Multiple award-winning translator Cathy Hirano has translated a variety of children’s literature, both picture books and fiction. Many of the books on this list have been translated by Hirano.
Fiction for 6- 8
Free Kid Good Home by Hiroshi Ito has been a best-seller in Japan for over thirty years. In this first, carefully crafted English translation by Hirano, Ito provides an engaging and unusual twist on sibling rivalry taking a child’s impulse to run away from home to a comical extreme. The story is further enhanced by the comic-style illustrations in simple black and red pen and ink. (Gecko Press, 2022)
Another title Hirano translated is Yours Sincerely, Giraffe a clever and witty tale by Megumi Iwasa about a bored Giraffe who wishes he had a special friend he could share things with. Soon he finds a pen pal – a Penguin! He knows nothing about penguins so his letters are full of questions. Accompanied by black and white pen-and-ink line drawings by Jun Takabatake. (Gecko Press, 2016)
Fiction for 9-11
Sachiko Kashiwaba is a prolific writer of children's and young adult fantasy whose career spans more than four decades. Temple Alley Summer, which won the 2022 Mildred L. Batchelder Award, is an imaginative and multi-layered story translated by Avery Fischer Udagawa. It combines eerie suspense as it explores the power of friendship in a world where the dead come back to life. With expressive black and white illustrations from award-winning Japanese illustrator Miho Satake. (Restless Books, 2021)
Ms Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami, the author of the internationally best-selling novel, Breasts and Eggs, who “has made her name articulating womanhood in Japan better than any living author”, is a coming-of-age novella, translated by Louise Heal Kawai. Even though Ms Ice Sandwich always appears aloof and isn’t friendly, the lonely young narrator is totally in awe of her. Most electric of all, are her eyelids which are painted with a thick layer of ice-blue. He nicknames her Ms Ice Sandwich and to him she is beautiful. (Pushkin Children's Books, 2017)
Written in 1959 The Secret of the Blue Glass by Tomiko Inui (1924-2002) is an unusual and deeply moving book. Set in Tokyo, in 1913, Tatsuo Moriyami is entrusted with the task of looking after the Little People by his English teacher Miss MacLachlan who is returning to England. There is only one thing they need to survive – a nightly glass of milk, served in a sparkling blue goblet. (Pushkin Children’s Books, 2015)
The Whale that Fell in Love with a Submarine is a collection of seven stories written for children by Akiyuki Nosaka(1930-2015), translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori. Each story takes place, on the 15th of August, 1945 – the day Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender ending the Second World War. Nosaka cleverly uses animal characters in most of the stories to help convey some of the unpalatable horrors of the Pacific War. (Pushkin Children’s Books, 2015)
Fiction 12+
OIW worked with novelist and screenwriter Kazumi Yumoto and translator Cathy Hirano when they came to the UK to take part in our Reading Around the World project (2009).
Kazumi Yumoto, Cathy Hirano and children from Hampton Hill School (2009)
Hirano has translated four of Yumoto’s books which often feature themes around death including: The Bear and the Wildcat (see above), The Friends (Farrar, Straus & Gioux, USA, 1996), The Spring Tone (Laurel-Leaf Books, USA, 1999) and Letters to the Living (Floris Books, UK, 2003)
Hirano first won the Mildred L. Bachelder Award in 1997 for
The Friends, about three friends who develop a fascination with death triggered by the funeral of a family member. They decide to spy on an old man who lives alone so that they can see what happens when he dies. As they are drawn into his world they learn a lot about life, tolerance and the dignity of getting old.
The Spring Tone is an unusually sensitive coming-of-age story. The young narrator sees few advantages in growing up and feels powerless to stop the inevitable changes that are happening to her body and the recurring bad dream of turning into a monster and the terrible debilitating headaches she suffers interfere with her life. Beautifully told with refreshing candour, this is a portrait of a young girl’s first steps towards womanhood.
Letters from the Living is another powerful novel about death and loss. After her father dies, six-year-old Chiaki has to deal with her grief alone as her mother is too distracted. When they move home Chiaki develops a relationship with their landlady who tells her she has been given a divine message to carry ‘letters to the dead’ when she herself dies. Yumoto explores the many different aspects of Japanese life and culture through this powerful and haunting novel.
Hirano’s translation of Moribito: the Guardian of the Spirit, (part of the twelve-volume ‘Guardian’ series), by 2014 Andersen laureate Nahoko Uehashi is an epic martial arts fantasy that is set in a land reminiscent of ancient Japan. Part of the ‘Guardian series’ Moribito: the Guardian of the Spirit has been translated into many languages and adapted into numerous media, including a radio drama, manga series, an anime adaptation and a live-action series. It also won the Mildred L. Bachelder Award in 2009 and the sequel Moribito: Guardian of the Darkness was an Honors winner in 2010. (Scholastic Inc)
As well as being one of Japan’s most popular writers of teenage fiction, Uehashi is also a cultural anthropologist and professor. The international bestseller The Beast Player is an utterly compelling and sophisticated fantasy novel full of complexity and beautiful thought-provoking prose which has been masterfully translated by Hirano winning the 2020 Mildred L. Bachelder Award.
Like her mother who was a skilled beast doctor for the fearsome battle serpents known as the Toda, Elin discovers she has a unique gift of communicating with these terrifying creatures and with the majestic Royal Beasts that guard her queen. Surrounded by intrigue, at every turn, Elin is confronted with a terrible choice between saving herself and preventing the Royal Beasts from being used as tools of war or facing the terrible battles to come. Uehashi skilfully juxtaposes fantasy with reality and a firm grounding in nature.
The sequel to The Beast Player (2018) is The Beast Warrior (2020) both published by Pushkin Children’s Books.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time by author Yasutaka Tsutsui was written in 1967 and is his fifth work to be translated into English although his first one for young adults. An unusual time-travel novel with minimal dialogue, clipped sentences and numerous questions whose nuances have been expertly translated by David Karashima. Tsutsui writes with wit and the occasional absurd but he also touches on some deeper issues regarding the future and outcome of scientific advancement. within the story. There is also an additional short story in the book, The Stuff That Nightmares Are Made Of'. (Alma Books, 2011)
The only non-fiction title included is The Reason I Jump. What makes this book particularly effective is that the author,
Naoki Higashida is not only on the autistic spectrum himself, but wrote the book in 2007 when he was just thirteen. It was first published in English in 2013 and translated by Keiko Yoshida and David Mitchell. As Alice O'Keefe of the Guardian said: “The Reason I Jump was a game-changer, not only for those with a special interest in autism but for anyone interested in the sheer diversity of human brains.”
The Reason I Jump was the No 1 Sunday Times bestseller in 2013 and was reissued in 2021 to accompany a major award-winning documentary. It was followed by a sequel Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8 in 2018. Higashida, now aged 30 is a writer and an advocate and has written 15 books, from autobiographical accounts of living with autism to fairy tales, poems and illustrated books. (Sceptre Publishers)
Deborah Hallford November 2022
Other titles translated from Japanese and reviewed on the website include:
999 Tadpole, Ken Kimura, North South (2011)
A Good Home for Max, Junzo Terada, Chronicle (2014)
Circle, Triangle, Elephant, Kenji Oikawa & Mayuko Takeuchi, Phaidon (2017)
The Girl With the White Flag, Tomiko Higa, Kondansha International (2003)
Hiroshima No Pika, Toshi Maruki, Lothrop, Lee & Shepherd (1980)
The Holes in Your Nose, Genichiro Yagyu, Frances Lincoln 2002)
Hooray for SNOW! Kazuo Iwamura, North South (2008)
Line Up, Please! Tomoko Ohmura, Gecko Press (2014)
Look, A Butterfly! Yasunari Murakami, Gecko Press (2018)
Seven Mice Have Fun on the Ice, Haruo Yamashita, North South (2011)
Stripe Island, Tupera Tupera, Thames & Hudson (2015)
What Does Baby Want? Arata Tendo, Phaidon (2017)
