![]() ![]() It was not until the publication of Dainippon Tosho’s Kotei Niimi Nankichi zenshu between 19 that Niimi's original work became available in its intended form. A mention of wartime activities in the text resulted in the Office of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers requiring Tatsumi to amend the text to meet postwar censorship rules. Seika Tatsumi who was entrusted with Niimi's manuscripts worked to popularize them. It is possible that Akai tori editor-in-chief Miekichi Suzuki made editorial changes. We can hear the narrator’s voice, pulling us into this fictional world, which is perhaps the greatest of Niimi’s dowa.Ī comparison of the text published in Akai tori with the original manuscript found in Niimi's notebooks shows significant diffences. From the first line, we are given a glimpse into the fact that a tragic story, in which Hyoju never quite understood the feelings of little Gon, has been passed down among the villagers. The reader is drawn in and reads the story as if he was listening to the old man tell the tale himself. The opening to Gongitsune begins: I first heard this story when I was child from an old man named Mohei, who lived in my village. ![]() ![]() Even today, Gongitsune remains well known thanks to its inclusion in elementary school Japanese textbooks. Nimi's dowa provide detailed depictions country life. Soon after his death, two anthologies of his dowa were published: Ushi wo tsunaida tsubaki no ki and Hananokimura to nusubitotachi. Sadly, he died at the young age of 29 from tuberculosis. He published his first collection of dowa, entitled Ojiisan no ranpu, in 1942. After working several different jobs, he became a teacher at the Anjo women’s high school, presently Anjo high school. He later moved to Tokyo, where he graduated from the Department of English at the Tokyo School of Foreign Languages, presently Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. He became acquainted with Seika Tatsumi and Junichi Yoda through his association with the doyo poets’ magazine Chichinoki, which was put together by followers of Hakushu Kitahara, who screened the doyo submitted to Akai tori. He published doyo like Mado and dowa like Shobo to Kuro and Gongitsune in Akai tori. While working as a substitute elementary teacher, he began submitting doyo (children’s songs) and dowa (children’s stories) to the children’s magazine Akai tori, using the pen name Nankichi. Nankichi Niimi is the pen name of Shohachi Niimi, who was born in Aichi Prefecture and graduated from Handa secondary school under the pre-WWⅡ educational system. Courtesy of Niimi Nankichi Memorial Museum Nankichi Niimi ![]()
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