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Miyoko Matsutani

Author profile

born

Tokyo, Japan

gender

female

website

http://matsutani-miyoko.net/index.php?id=16

genre

Children's Books

About this author

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Born in 1926, Kanda, Tokyo. Graduated from Toyo High School in 1942. Requisitioned by the Naval Hydrographic Department in 1944, when she started writing stories for children.

Evacuating to Nagano in May 1945 to escape the war, she met Joji Tsubota, a famous writer for the young readers who was also there under the war evacuation, and showed him her works, asking for his advice. After her return to Tokyo in 1948, Tsubota's recommendation enabled her Kaininatta Kodomo no Hanashi (A Story of a Child turned into a Shell) to appear in the magazine Dowa Kyoshitsu (A Classroom of Children's Stories). Later, the story was published by Akane Publishing Co. as collected short stories entitled Kaininatta Kodomo (A Child turned into a Shell, 1951). The...more Born in 1926, Kanda, Tokyo. Graduated from Toyo High School in 1942. Requisitioned by the Naval Hydrographic Department in 1944, when she started writing stories for children.

Evacuating to Nagano in May 1945 to escape the war, she met Joji Tsubota, a famous writer for the young readers who was also there under the war evacuation, and showed him her works, asking for his advice. After her return to Tokyo in 1948, Tsubota's recommendation enabled her Kaininatta Kodomo no Hanashi (A Story of a Child turned into a Shell) to appear in the magazine Dowa Kyoshitsu (A Classroom of Children's Stories). Later, the story was published by Akane Publishing Co. as collected short stories entitled Kaininatta Kodomo (A Child turned into a Shell, 1951). The work won the first Japan Juvenile Literature Association Award for New Writers.

Married to Takuo Segawa, a folktale historian, with whom she establishment Taro Za, a puppet theater company, which broadened her social perspectives in her writing
style. With her husband she energetically collected oral stories and folktales through the interviews with the rural people in the Shinshu region, which inspired her to create a story Tatsunoko Taro (Taro the Dragon Boy, 1960) in her unprecedented literary style. Matsutani describes the story as a "collaboration of ancestors and myself." Interspersed with classical children's rhymes, her narrative style flows with a beautiful rhythm exquisitely resonant with the inherent power of story-telling. With its highly appreciated originality both in contents and form of expression that opened a new way in children's books, the work received the first Kodansha Award for Newcomers, the Sankei Juvenile Literature Publishing Culture Award, and the Hans Christian Andersen Award-Honour List (current IBBY Honour List) in 1962.

Along with her enthusiasm in creating children's fictions based on folktales, the autobiographical narrative in her Chisai Momo-chan (Little Momo-chan, 1964) brought a fresh air to the genre. The lively tone in the depiction of a child's daily life with her working mother captured readers' hearts. The work won the Noma Prize for Juvenile Literature and the NHK Juvenile Literature Encouragement Prize. Subsequently, she worked on the series of Momo-stories following the girl's growth,
such as Momo-chan to Pooh (Momo-chan and Poo, 1970), Momo-chan to Akane-chan (Momo-chan and Akane-chan, 1974), Chisai Akane-chan (Little Akane-chan, 1978) and Akane-chan to Okyaku-san no Papa (Akane-chan and Daddy as Guest, 1983). Particularly, Chisai Akane-chan made a big challenge in dealing with a topic on a parent's divorce, a conventional taboo in the realm of children's literature, by putting the serious subject into focus in a touch of fairytale style.

Matsutani has also been intent upon writing such fictions termed as so-called protest literature, including Futari-no Ida (Another Little Girl Called Ida, 1969), Shinokunikara-no Baton (From the Past World, 1976), and Watashino Anne Frank (Letters to Anne Frank, 1979). Her war-stories for younger children such as Machinto (A Little more, 1978) and Oide-Oide (Come here, 1984), for example, are written for those children in the next generation who do not have any experience of real war. The scope of her activities has been extended to record and compile the modern folktales in a series such as Gendaiminwako (Collection of Folktales in Modern times, 5 volumes, 1985).
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Books by Miyoko Matsutani

Average rating: 3.92 · 36 ratings · 3 reviews · 195 distinct works

	The Crane Maiden by Miyoko Matsutani, Matsutani Miyoko 4.27 avg rating — 11 ratings	My rating:
	Unknown Book 11626756 4.56 avg rating — 9 ratings	My rating:
	Touhou Bougetsushou Silent Sinner In Blue Volume 1 by Miyoko Matsutani, ZUN 4.40 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 2008	My rating:
	Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia (Chronicles of Narnia, #4) 3.90 avg rating — 77,804 ratings — published 1951 — 72 editions	My rating:
	Two Little Girls Called Iida 4.50 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 1969 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Peek-A-Boo by Miyoko Matsutani, R.I.C. Publications, Yasuo Segawa (Illustrator) 4.25 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2004	My rating:
	Unknown Book 13038756 4.00 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2010	My rating:
	Unknown Book 8764756 4.00 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2010	My rating:
	They Both Were Naked 3.00 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 1966 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Fortune for a Falcon 4.25 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 1975 — 2 editions	My rating: