Kaoruko Okano STRAY DOG 1st Ed 1965 Illustrated Japanese Children's Literature

by Kaoruko Okano

$263 · Offered by eBay

First edition

.no-subscribe { display: none} [contenteditable] { pointer-events: none; } BOKU WA NORA INU (I am a Stray Dog) by Kaoruko Okano Published by Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha, Tokyo, 1965. JAPANESE TEXT. First edition. Very good hardcover in very good original slip case and clear mylar dustwrapper. Tight binding, solid spine, some writing/notes in English 8vo, illustrated, 208 pages. In the landscape of postwar Japanese children's literature, where writers wrestled with reconstruction and the redefinition of innocence, Kaoruko Okano carved out her particular territory with animal stories that never talked down to their readers. This 1965 tale arrives just a year after her debut novel Giniro Rakko no Namida (Silver Sea Otter's Tears) had earned her the Sankei Juvenile Literature Publishing Culture Award and the NHK Children's Literature Encouragement Award, establishing her as a fresh voice in the era's flowering of dowa (children's stories). Boku wa Nora Inu follows the first-person narration of Kuro (Blackie), a stray dog navigating the margins of a Japanese village, and Okano—who had worked as a science film scriptwriter before turning to fiction at age 35—brings to the story her characteristic blend of precise observation and emotional restraint. The book features the author's own charcoal illustrations alongside pen-and-ink line drawings and watercolor scenes that capture both the rough beauty of rural Japan and the dignity of its animal protagonists, reflecting the dual education Ok

• Publisher: Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha
• Year: 1965
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good

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