10 of the Best Stories from Kenji Miyazawa & Nankichi Niimi

Tales from Japan Book 5 combines all of the works from Tales from Japan, Books 1 - 4. The Tales from Japan series was produced by Little J Books to provide readers with a sample of the best works of Nankichi Niimi & Kenji Miyazawa, authors of fantasy fiction that has been loved by children and adults throughout Japan for more than 70 years. Both of these authors have had a significant influence on the fiction and animation that was produced in Japan post-WWII. Ame-ni-mo-makezu, a prayer composed as a poem, and The Restaurant of Many Orders are two of Kenji's most famous works, while Gon the Fox and Buying Mittens are two standout stories from Nankichi Niimi.

This version contains the following stories:

Kenji Miyazawa:

Gauche the Cellist
The Restaurant of Many Orders
Wild Pear (Yamanashi)
The Nighthawk Star
Kenju's Forest Playground
Ame-ni-mo Makezu

Nankichi Niimi:
Gon the Fox
Buying Mittens
When the Thieves Came to Hananoki Village
Grandpa's Lamp
The Story of the Giant

Gauche the Cellist
Gauche is a hopeless musician and he's always being yelled at by the conductor. It's not because he doesn't try, it's just that there is something lacking in his music. With a big concert approaching, Gauche receives some special music lessons from some close neighbors.

The Restaurant of Many Orders
This is perhaps the most famous of Kenji's short stories and one of his personal favorites, as it was the title story of his one and only self-published collection of short stories. Two hunters go on a hunting trip in the country and end up completely lost. Luckily they come across what appears to be an extremely popular restaurant…but everything is not as it seems.

Gon the Fox
Gon is a cheeky fox who loves to play pranks on people. But one day he plays a prank that has unexpected consequences. So he decides to make amends.
Niimi wrote this story when he was only seventeen years of age, and more than seventy years after his death, it remains one of the best known and loved Japanese short stories of all time.

The Story of the Giant
People are terrified of the giant because he is enormous and he is the son of that horrible old witch. But is it possible that they may have misjudged him?

Buying Mittens
Mama fox only wants the best for her little one, so when the snow arrives and her precious boy needs some mittens, then she knows what she needs to do. The only problem is that she is afraid and her legs won't take her any further. So her son must go on his own.
This delightful children's story contains beautiful descriptions of the foxes' journey through the snow-covered woods during the night.

About the Authors
Nankichi Niimi was born Shohachi Watanabe in what is now Handa City, Aichi Prefecture, on July 30, 1913, with the year 2013 marking 100 years since his birth. It was recently estimated that over 60 million people have read Gon the Fox, a story he penned at just 17 years of age. Niimi went on to write a large number of poems and short stories, such as Buying Mittens, Grandpa's Lamp and When the Thieves Came to Hananoki Village before his death from tuberculosis at age 29.

Kenji Miyazawa is one of Japan’s best known and well-loved writers and poets. He was born in what is now Hanamaki City, Iwate Prefecture, Japan, in 1896. Although the eldest son of a wealthy pawnbroker and landowner, Kenji was a deeply spiritual person and refused to take over the family business for moral reasons. He was a prolific writer who completed hundreds of works, but only a small collection of those were published while he was still alive, his reputation as one of Japan’s best storytellers only coming after his death in 1933, aged 37.


Genre: Fantasy