FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF JAPANESE CHILDREN’S LITERATURE: A HISTORICAL AND LITERARY ANALYSIS

Abstract

This article presents a comprehensive historical and literary analysis of the genesis, institutionalization, and evolution of Japanese children’s literature, tracing its development from pre-modern roots to mid-20th-century paradigms. Challenging the Eurocentric assumption that specialized literature for young readers in Japan emerged strictly as a byproduct of Westernization during the Meiji Restoration (1868–1912), the study demonstrates a robust indigenous foundation. By examining oral folklore (mukashi-banashi), medieval illustrated scrolls (otogi-zōshi), and early modern commercial woodblock publications (kusa-zōshi), the author outlines how traditional culture synthesized with Western genres. The paper further investigates pedagogical and aesthetic ideological shifts across the Meiji, Taishō, and Shōwa eras—highlighting the genbun-itchi linguistic reform, the artistic purity movement spearheaded by the journal Akai Tori, and the post-war shift toward hard realism catalyzed by the 1960 manifesto Kodomo to bungaku. Ultimately, the study concludes that Japan's century-long practice of merging verbal and visual narratives directly paved the way for the global triumph of its contemporary visual media, such as manga and anime.