By Corinne Kennedy

Dokusho no Aki - 読書の秋, or “Autumn, The Season for Reading” is a common saying in Japan, and it’s a popular time of the year for all kinds of themed reading lists to be published. As the days grow colder and the nights get longer here in Seattle, books are a welcome companion. For your fall enrichment, Corinne Kennedy has compiled an eclectic list of thirteen titles, including eleven books for children and younger teens (picture books, haiku poetry, two novels) and two short story collections for older teens and adults.

Fall color in the Seattle Japanese Garden, November 2011. (photo: frted/Wikimedia Commons)

I continue to be amazed and inspired by the wonderful selection of children’s books at the Elisabeth C. Miller Library, where I volunteer! So, like my “Essential Reading List for 2022,” this year’s article is also focused on works for children. Included here are thirteen works, two translated from the Japanese. Nine are picture books, two are books for older children and young teens, and two are short story collections for older teens and adults. Themes include Japanese aesthetics, gardens, poetry, festivals, and spiritual practices; the world of nature and the seasons; and racism, discrimination, and the World War II incarceration of Japanese immigrants and their children. Most of this year’s books are available at local public libraries and seven are also available at the Miller Library (as noted by ***).

CHILDREN’S PICTURE BOOKS:

Bridge and trees showing fall color in the Seattle Japanese Garden, October 2021. (photo: SaraiRachel/Wikimedia Commons)

Butterflies for Kiri, written and illustrated by Cathryn Falwell (2003).
Kiri loves to draw and paint and is excited to receive a special birthday gift, colorful origami papers and a book of instructions. But paper-folding is harder than she expects, and she tears the thin origami tissues. Afraid of ruining more of the beautiful papers, she works on other art projects—and uses ordinary notebook paper to practice folding origami. But she finds a creative way to fix a watercolor that she thinks is ruined—cutting flower shapes out of the origami paper and gluing them onto the painting. Then, she takes a deep breath and bravely folds a bright yellow square into a beautiful butterfly! With colorful collage illustrations and a page of diagrams showing how to create an origami butterfly. Kindergarten-Grade 2. ***

My First Book of Haiku Poems: A Picture, a Poem and a Dream: Classic Poems by Japanese Haiku Masters, translated by Esperanza Ramirez-Christensen; illustrated by Tracy Gallup (2019).

Twenty poems by haiku poetry masters Basho, Issa, Shiki, and others are represented in English translation and in the original Japanese (with Japanese characters and also Romanji). Each "introduces children to poems that speak of our connection to the natural world and of their own ability to see an entire universe in the tiniest parts of it”—and is paired with a “dreamscape” painting that “both portrays and inspires a child’s inner life.” (from the book jacket). With beautiful and evocative illustrations. Kindergarten-Grade 4.

Natsumi’s Song of Summer, by Robert Paul Weston, illustrated by Misa Saburi (2020).
Natsumi loves “everything about summertime: swimming, running on soft grass, the sun, the heat, the cool burst of plum rain, heavy and sweet…. summer’s insects… the chirrup of cicadas!” In this charming picture book, she eagerly welcomes her American cousin to Japan, even though the two little girls have never met. Natsumi shows Jill everything she loves about summer, though she worries that her cousin will be frightened by the cicadas. But Jill doesn’t scream, and when she learns that the insects wait underground for years before emerging "to meet their friends," she responds: "Just like us... Waiting and waiting, and now we’ve finally met!” Written in tanka, a haiku-like poem with two additional lines of seven syllables each. Ages 3-7. ***

The Peace Tree from Hiroshima: The Little Bonsai with a Big Story, by Sandra Moore, illustrated by Kazumi Wilds (2015).

*The Peace Tree from Hiroshima: The Little Bonsai with a Big Story*

This beautifully illustrated picture book is based on actual events, told from the perspective of a pine tree that was trained as a bonsai and centuries later survived the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima. A man named Itaro Yamaki dug up the tiny seedling from the forested island of Miyajima as “a souvenir of this island, of the trees that touched my heart.” He shaped it into a bonsai tree that his family maintained for many generations. Eventually they moved to Hiroshima. Miraculously, the family and their bonsai survived the bomb, though they lived only two miles from its epicenter. Decades later, the tree’s last caretaker, Masaru, donated it to the United States as a special gift in honor of the 1976 bicentennial. As the Author’s Note explains, “At the National Arboretum the bonsai is referred to as the ‘Yamaki pine’ in honor of the Japanese family that cared for it for over three hundred years, and also as ‘the Peace Tree’ because it is a symbol of friendship between Japan and America, two countries that were enemies during the Second World War.” Grades 2-5. ***

Sky Sweeper, by Phillis Gershator, illustrated by Holly Meade (2007).

“Young Takeboki needed a job, and the monks in the temple needed a Flower Keeper. It was the Flower Keeper’s job to sweep up the springtime plum and cherry blossoms in the temple garden…. But when spring passed into summer, no one told him to stop sweeping.” So begins this unique tale of a conscientious young person, mindfully centered on his own happiness, who keeps sweeping—flowers, leaves, snow—throughout the seasons. His parents and older brother tell him to find a more important job, one with a future and the possibility of marriage and a family. But Takeboki keeps sweeping, happy with “the many worlds he saw when he looked at the garden.” Raking lines in the garden’s sand and gravel, he continues to create those many worlds. But when he becomes too old and sick to work, the monks do not notice his absence. Eventually, though, they visit his house and discover that he’s died. Seeing the expression on Takeboki’s face, the most eminent monk tells the others: “Our Flower Keeper never heard us say the words ‘Thank you for what you have given us,’ but he heard the flowers. And now, like the Buddha, he smiles.” In his new “radiant world,” Takeboki joyfully sweeps the “clouds into billowing mountains and shifting, drifting wisps of white.” And “in the temple garden, the new Flower Keeper rakes and sweeps—and smiles, too.” With vibrant collage illustrations. Ages 5-up. ***

The Star Festival, by Moni Ritchie Hadley, illustrated by Mizuho Fujisawa (2021).

This picture book is centered on the Star Festival, Tanabata Matsuri, which celebrates a popular Japanese folktale (and is one of the Japanese festivals celebrated every year in the Seattle Japanese Garden). Five-year-old Keiko, her Mama and Oba (“grandmother”) prepare to attend the festival, dressing up in summer kimonos and making tanzaku paper wishes to tie onto their bamboo plant. Oba recounts the story of how all year the Emperor of the Heavens separates his daughter, Orihime, from her love, Hikoboshi―except on this one day, when the two are reunited on a bridge across the Milky Way. At the festival, Keiko and her family enjoy the colorful decorations and special foods, but Oba becomes separated, so Keiko and Mama make their own bridge to find her. Kindergarten-Grade 2.

Thank You, Miyuki, by Roxane Marie Galliez, illustrated by Seng Soun Ratanavanh (2020).

Third in a series of beautifully illustrated picture books about Miyuki and her grandfather. In this story, Miyuki observes her grandfather’s morning meditation and pesters him to teach her. But instead of answering Miyuki’s questions, her grandfather takes her on a walk in the garden, and together they observe the natural world around them—bees, stones, grass, water, clouds, raindrops, and a single fragrant rose. Miyuki comes tounderstand that in these small acts of mindfulness and gratitude, she has learned to meditate. Ages 5-8. ***

Wabi Sabi, by Mark Reibstein, illustrated by Ed Young (2008). Wabi Sabi, a cat living in the city of Kyoto, wonders about the meaning of her name. But she’s confused by the responses of the animals she asks. Disheartened but curious, she embarks on a journey of discovery, seeking advice from a wise monkey and inspiration from a visit to the Silver Temple (Ginkakuji). On her travels, she learns to appreciate the beauty of simplicity and naturalness that is wabi sabi, a uniquely Japanese way of seeing the world. And so, Wabi Sabi discovers that she herself is both ordinary and wonderful. The text is paired with evocative collage illustrations and haiku poems by Japanese masters, translated into English. Grades 2-4.
When the Sakura Bloom, written and illustrated by Narisa Togo (2020). English adaptation by Michael Sedunary (2022). This beautifully illustrated picture book is “an understated ode to an iconic Japanese cultural celebration, mindfulness, and the restorative power of the seasons.” (Kirkus Reviews) It opens with people rushing to catch their trains, ignoring each other and their surroundings. But as winter turns into spring, a young girl stops to pick up a fallen cherry blossom (sakura) and realizes that something has changed. Preparations are being made for the annual Sakura Festival! People slow down to take photos, marvel at the delicate beauty of the blooms, and picnic under their pink canopies. As always, though, the display is fleeting: wind and rain blow the flowers onto the ground, and most people return to their hurried lives. But one girl continues to acknowledge the cherry trees, now clothed in green. Ages 4-8. ***

FICTION FOR OLDER CHILDREN AND YOUNGER TEENS:

How Do You Live, by Genzaburo Yoshino (1937), translated by Bruno Navasky (2021).

This is the first English translation of a classic Japanese novel for young people, originally published in 1937—"a strange and ruminative coming-of-age tale.” (Booklist) It was conceived as a philosophical guide for young people created in the form of a novel. At its center is 15-year-old Honda Jun'ichi, whose nickname, Copper, is short for Copernicus. After his bank director father died, Copper and his mother downsized from central Tokyo to a suburban neighborhood, and Copper has become very close to his maternal uncle. Covering a year in his life, the novel alternates sections from Copper’s perspective—on his developing friendships with three other boys, events at school and elsewhere, and how he thinks and feels about them—with entries from his uncle’s Notebook of philosophical and moral lessons, written for Copper’s edification. Themes include science, philosophy, economics, sociology, history, and poverty. Although the book is slow-paced and Copper’s uncle is at once intelligent, loving and somewhat pedantic, Copper is an engaging and thoughtful protagonist, and 1937 Tokyo comes alive for the reader. “What results is a gentle tale of self-discovery and reflection, and a compassionate guidebook on integrity punctuated by rich sensory details.” (Publisher’s Weekly). Ages 10-14.

Paper Wishes, by Lois Sepahban (2016). Historical fiction about a Japanese American family’s forced removal from Bainbridge Island in 1942 and their imprisonment at Manzanar, in the California desert. With first-person, present-tense narration, and a simple, direct style, the novel is 10-year-old Manami’s story. The loss of her home and the life she’s always known is quickly followed by the loss of her dog Yujiin, when a soldier forces her to leave him behind. Heart-broken, guilt-ridden, and fearful, Manami stops speaking. Over time, her family and the other camp inhabitants do what they can to make a life for themselves in their "prison-village," and Manami’s older brother Ron leaves college to be with them there, but Manami cannot find her voice. “Devastated by the loss of her beloved pet and by her family's sudden move, Manami finds refuge in drawing pictures of Yujiin and writing promises to take good care of him if only he will return to her. Each morning she hopes he will come back and she sends her promise drawings into the air.” (from the book jacket) Despite the novel’s somber portrayal of the camp’s hardships and injustice, it ends hopefully, as Manami recovers her voice and her family and other members of their block move to another camp. Ages 8-12. ***

FICTION FOR ADULTS AND OLDER TEENS—20TH CENTURY JAPANESE AND JAPANESE AMERICAN SHORT STORIES:

The elegant white flower of autumn-blooming *Camellia sasanqua* ‘Tago-no-Tsuki’, October 2014. (photo: Aleks Monk)

Once and Forever: The Tales of Kenji Miyazawa, by Kenji Miyazawa, translated by John Bester (2018).
This collection of fable-like short stories is not actually a children’s book. Its “dark fairy tales from a now-vanished agrarian Japan” (The New York Times) and their “careful grace notes amid the everyday energy of a world in which anything can happen, and probably will….” (npr.org) should appeal to introspective older teens and adults.

“Kenji Miyazawa [1896-1933] is one of modern Japan’s most beloved writers, a great poet and a strange and marvelous spinner of tales, whose sly, humorous, enchanting, and enigmatic stories bear a certain resemblance to those of his contemporary Robert Walser. John Bester’s selection and expert translation of Miyazawa’s short fiction reflects its full range from the joyful, innocent “Wildcat and the Acorns,” to the cautionary tale “The Restaurant of Many Orders,” to “The Earthgod and the Fox,” which starts out whimsically before taking a tragic turn. Miyazawa also had a deep connection to Japanese folklore and an intense love of the natural world. In “The Wild Pear,” what seem to be two slight nature sketches succeed in encapsulating some of the cruelty and compensations of life itself.” (from the book jacket)

Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories: Revised and Expanded Edition, by Hisaye Yamamoto (2001).

*Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories: Revised and Expanded Edition*

The most complete collection of the works of Nisei writer Hisaye Yamamoto (1921-2011), whose short stories portrayed Japanese American life from the 1930s to the late twentieth century. Originally published in 1988, this is a revised and expanded edition. It includes an introduction by Yamamoto scholar King-Kok Cheung of UCLA, nineteen short stories published between 1948 and 1995, and Yamamoto’s brief preface to the revised edition. In her introduction, Cheung praises Yamamoto’s work for its “abiding compassion, keen eyes, wry humor, and prose that is at once disarming and harrowing.”

Often based on actual events, Yamamoto’s stories explore the experiences of Japanese immigrants and their children, including the realities of racism, sexism, and their World War II incarceration. Many portray the hardships faced by the women of her parents’ generation, as well as the relationships between Issei men and women, and between Issei parents and their Nisei children. In 2010, at the end of her life, the Asian American Writers Workshop presented her with its Lifetime Achievement Award, noting that “Not unlike the fiction of Flannery O’Connor, Yamamoto’s stories are brutal, efficient fables of race, saturated with the social subtext of the American small town.”

Corinne Kennedy is a Garden Guide, a frequent contributor to the Seattle Japanese Garden blog, and retired garden designer.

The Essential Reading List for 2023

By Corinne Kennedy