Shonen shojo [Boys and Girls].

£850 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

Kawakami’s nostalgic ode to childhood. In the present book Kawakami illustrates typical games played by children in Japan, such as hanetsuki (a game similar to badminton), ohajiki (a game with flat glass marbles) and otedama (small bean bags used for juggling). In some games we see boys and girls playing together, in others they are separated. As the book progresses, the children become young men and women. In the penultimate plate two have grown up and become a married couple, and in the last pages two children wave goodbye to one another, ‘Goodbye, farewell, sad to see you go’. Rare. No copies in OCLC.

• Year: 1952

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