Q1 I am a PhD student in Japanese Language and Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison doing dissertation research on Miyazawa Kenji's children's stories. I would definitely be interested in communicating with others and their ideas regarding Kenji and his stories.

  1. I am interested in learning how different readers respond to his stories whether they read them in Japanese or in translation.
  2. I am also interested to learn whether people view the stories as stories for children or not and why.
  3. Also, what writers do people see as similar to Kenji? I often think of ALICE and her other world as being similar to many of Kenji's other worlds. (Heather Raabe)

Ans. [1] [2] [3]
    [3] E.O. (Wed, 1 Apr 1998)

    Hi, this is Eiji again. Since my last appearance in this page, I have investigated into my library and now come up with an elaborated version.
    Yes, Novalis (Friedrich Leopold Freiherr von Hardenberg) is a Kenji from many aspects. When you compare their lives, you bound to surprise to find how much they have in common. I will give a list of their similarity as follows (As I understand you must know Kenji well, I give only Novalis's features).

    1. Novalis was the first son in a rich celebrated family in a local German state, Thueringen..
    2. His father was a religious man and wanted his elder son to have a practical job.
    3. He studied medicine and mineralogy as well as literature, especially poee the science and the art.
    4. He wrote many great poems and stories.
    5. He worked at a salt factory following father's advice.
    6. His sweetheart Sophie died young of illness and it accelerated him to make more religious poems.
    7. He spend most of his life in Thueringen.
    8. He died young of illness himself.
    I am talking about Novalis, not Kenji! It's resembling isn't it? I don't know much about his works but as far as I learned from Heinrich von Ofterdingen, his inner world is so beautiful as Kenji's one.
    [2] E.O. (Wed, 21 Jan 1998)

    May I skip the first question because it needs a lot of time. I may answer it later. To the second, I think Novalis of Germany has much in common as Kenji. Chastity, Stoicism, collection of rocks and minerals, fantasy writing, and above all, their discription is so gorgeous. I also agree your opinion that Alice's story is alike. It has been referred by many people. Especially, in Through the Looking Glass, there is a scene on a train and a conductor asked Alice for a ticket and she can't find it. It is said, Kenji read Alice and imitated it. I think so too. I do not have enough time now. I'll show up later.

    [1] m.k. (Wed, 4 Jun 1997)

    I think that miyazawa's tail (maybe "fiction") should be read as for adult.For his story includes the view for all lifes (not only mankind ) and he wanted to lead us where he imagined,I think,in his sentenses. I declere he wrote the tales as for adult(esp.the leaders in those days).
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