The Tokugawa period publishing boom expanded Japanese readership in new directions. Cheap woodblock printing allowed mass marketing of books, resulting in a proliferation of works written for wider audiences. By the Meiji period, children were reading, or being read, literature that, like the otogizoshi fairy tales of earlier centuries, were written primarily with them in mind. As was the case with Japanese popular fiction, children’s literature established itself as a dominant genre in the 1910s. The literary journal Akai Tori (Red Bird), appearing first in 1918 and running nearly without break until 1936, was pivotal in establishing children’s literature as a legitimate genre. The monthly magazine featured traditional and modern literature for young readers written by both amateur and serious writers, including luminaries, such as Akutagawa Ryunosuke, Arishima Takeo, Izumi Kyoka, Kitahara Hakushu, and Tokuda Shusei. Its success spawned other children’s magazines, such as Kane no fune (Golden Ship) in 1919 and Dowa (Fairy Tale) in 1920.
During the prewar period, writers such as Yamamoto Yuzo and Miyazawa Kenji wrote many stories and books for children, and in the postwar period the role of children’s literature shifted from didacticism to entertainment, in part because of the emergence of manga and the influence of children’s television programs. By the later part of the 20th century, children’s literature was a thriving business in Japan, with a number of series (including the Harry Potter franchise in translation) selling over a million copies. Notable contemporary children’s authors include Eiko Kadono (1935–), author of Majo no takkyubin (1985; tr. Kiki’s Delivery Service, 2003), and Takagi Toshiko (1932–), author of Garasu no usagi (1977; tr. The Glass Rabbit, 1986). Both works of children’s literature have been made into films.
Historical dictionary of modern Japanese literature and theater. J. Scott Miller. 2009.