Kurushima Takehiko


Kurushima Takehiko was a children's literature author known as "the Japanese Hans Christian Andersen". He was one of the three great Japanese authors of children's stories for public performance. One of Takehiko's most celebrated works is the nursery rhyme "Yūyake Koyake".

Life and career

Takehiko was born in 1874 in Mori Town, Kusu District in Ōita Prefecture. He was a direct descendant of Kurushima Michifusa, and the grandson of the last head of the Mori Domain, Kurushima Michiyasu.
In 1887, he entered Ōita Middle School. There he met an American priest, Wainwright, who was working as an English teacher. Partly due to the influence of Mr. and Mrs. Wainwright, Takehiko came to enjoy telling stories to children in Sunday School. Takehiko and Wainwright transferred to Kwansei Gakuin University, from which Takehiko eventually graduated. Upon his graduation, Takehiko entered the army and served in the First Sino-Japanese War. During this time, works he submitted under the pen name Onoe Shinbee were accepted by Iwaya Sazanami, the head writer at the magazine Shōnen Sekai, "'World' for Boys". Takehiko then began to write military stories. During this time, Takehiko also met Ozaki Kōyō.
After returning to Japan, Takehiko got a job working for the Kobe Shimbun newspaper. In 1906, he began his tour of Japan, during which he gave readings of children’s stories at over 6000 kindergartens and elementary schools. After his tour, in 1910, Takehiko founded Sawarabi Kindergarten.
In 1924, Takehiko and Iwaya Sazanami became consultants to the recently established Japanese Children's Story Guild. In 1924, Takehiko also played a part in laying the foundations of the Scouting movement in Japan. A group including Takehiko, Nakano Chūhachi, and Takehiko's son-in-law, Hidesaburō Kurushima participated in the Second World Scout Jamboree held in Denmark, as the deputy leader of the Japanese group. During this time, Takehiko visited Odense, the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen. Upon his arrival, Takehiko became distressed to find that the house in which Andersen was born was now being used as little more than a storehouse, and that Andersen’s grave was unattended to and had gone to seed. Takehiko appealed to the local newspaper, and to anybody else he visited, asking them to return Andersen to his rightful prominence. Moved by his concern, the Danish people came to call Takehiko “the Japanese Hans Christian Andersen”.
At that time, when he visited Odense, the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen, he was distressed to find that the house in which Andersen was born was being used as little more than a storehouse, and that Andersen's grave was unattended to and had gone to seed. He appealed to the local newspaper, and to wherever else he visited, to return Andersen to his rightful prominence. Moved by this, the Danish people came to call him "the Japanese Hans Christian Andersen".
In 1945, both Takehiko’s Tokyo home and Sawarabi Kindergarten were burnt down during air raids, consequently, in 1949, Takehiko moved to Kōseki-An, a house built inside the precinct of Denkōji temple.

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