I went to the Kodansha website to check the Kodansha Newcomer Award for Children’s Literature for the first time in a while.
Something is different.
The award itself has been absorbed into a web magazine called Coquelicot.
Furthermore, this web site was full of picture books and children’s stories, but there was almost nothing in the narrative field…sad.
In addition, last year, the Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature, which had been given by the late Hayao Kawai, a long-time advocate of the importance of children’s literature, stopped accepting applications, and the number of new entrants to the award is decreasing year by year.
In the past, the Aoitori Bunko used to occupy the shelves of bookstores and libraries, but now there is no sign of it. It has been relegated to the fringes of the picture book section. This fact may be reflected in this web magazine.
How can children’s literature be read if novels are not read? Is it any wonder?
It is no use being discouraged. We can only do what we can do. In short, we have no choice but to create good works. In the end, that is all we can do.
But what exactly is a good work of art? That is the difficult part. It is almost an unknown field for adults to know what kind of stories will please children. Even Anpanman was not understood by adults at first, but was discovered by children and sold well.
Children must have some kind of unique interest sensor. And just as many children suddenly get tired of Anpanman, their sensors suddenly switch. They suddenly start reading brutal cartoons. I don’t even know how that switch works.
So, a good work is one that catches the children’s sensor, and continues to be read even after the sensor switches, and is read over and over again even after they become adults. Just as I, too, sometimes reread the Moomin series or The Prince of the Stars.
The other day, I digitized and published a work from my early days of children’s literature, but as a creator, it is only my parental love that I want my works to be read over and over again, from small children to adults.
I think I wrote in a previous article that I was a little uncomfortable with the term “children’s literature,” but just as children have unlimited potential, I believe that children’s literature has just as much potential.
Sometimes, books such as Soseki Natsume’s “Kokoro” or Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s “Du Zi Shun” (and Edogawa Rampo) are often included in children’s literature collections, but although these books are masterpieces, I honestly feel that they are a bit young for elementary school children to read.
If I were asked what I would prefer instead, “Momo”, “The Alchemist”, “Gedo Senki”, and other foreign works would probably come up, but I can’t really name any Japanese works (I like “Crayon Kingdom”).
That is why adults would want to include “Kokoro”…but it’s still not the same.
I wonder if someone will come up in the world of picture books, just like the picture book boom that came with the sudden appearance of the outstanding figure of Yoshitake Shinsuke. I hope that someone will emerge who can enliven the world of children’s literature together with me.
Nakamura, putting aside his own ability to produce works, is concerned about the future of children’s literature.
See you soon!
