I had forgotten how wonderful this book is. My elementary school, Ohlone, was founded on many of the same principles Totto-chan’s school Tomoe Gakkuen was. Our teachers would read us stories from this book in fourth grade and even before.<\/p>\n
\nJapanese talk-show host Tetsuko Kuroyanagi reminisces about her elementary school, Tomoe, but entirely in the third person, as a children’s book. The teaching philosophy of its founder and principal, Sosaku Kobayashi, is inspiring. <\/p>\n\nTotto-chan has the kinds of adventures we all have as children, digging up entire cesspools and helping her polio-stricken friend how to climb a tree. Well, some of us have those adventures anyway… Your childhood may be squandered already, but it’s not too late to live vicariously through Totto-chan!<\/p>\n\nEntry in Wikipedia<\/a><\/p>\n\nHere are my notes on the things I found in this book:<\/p>\n
Listen! a frog
\nJumping into the silence
\nOf an ancient pond!\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n- Senzoku Pond has an island with a shrine on it-
\ndedicated to Benten, goddess of beauty and music (also a character in Urusei Yatsura)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n- poet Issa Kobayashi
\nLean Frog,
\nFeldgling Sparrows!
\nDon’t you surrender!
\nHere’s Issa by you<\/p>\n
\nMake way, make way,
\nWay for the noble Horse!<\/p>\n\nSpare the Fly!
\nWringing his hands, wringing his feet,
\nHe implores your mercy!<\/p>\n\nThe snow thaws-
\nAnd suddenly the whole village
\nIs full of children!\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n- Kuhonbutsu Temple\n<\/li>\n
- station Midorigaoka – on the way to school on the Oimachi line\n<\/li>\n
- 5-sen coin – before the war, a yen was divided into sen\n<\/li>\n
- 47 Ronin – chushingura – an incredibly violent national epic about loyalty and self-sacrifice.\n
\n
- Lord Asano\n<\/li>\n
- “I, Rihei Amanoya, am a man!” – accessory merchant who did not narc\n<\/li>\n
- Sengakuji Temple\n<\/li>\n
- Kuhonbutsu Temple\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
- Hideo Saito, cellist, friend of “daddy”\n<\/li>\n
- Shiga highlands\n<\/li>\n
- The skiing star that Totto-chan rides with, “Schneider,”
\nis likely Austrian skiing legend Hannes Schneider, who left Nazi-occupied Austria in 1939 for the US. Given the age of Totto-chan, their meeting could be after his German imprisonment or even after his US immigration, but is definitely before the war.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n- Singing Pictures\n
\n
- Japanese children’s book\n<\/li>\n
- \n
A circle and a spot; A circle and a spot;
\nCriss-crosses for the nose; another roungs and dot.
\nThree hairs, three hairs, three hairs – and wow!
\nQuick as a wink, there’s a fat hausfrau<\/i>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n- folk tale about a rich man’s daughter who couldn’t marry because she kept farting.
\nHer groom is blown out of bed 7 and a half times.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n- Performance of Swan Lake<\/i> at Hibiya Hall\n<\/li>\n
- rakugo<\/i> tale about a man whose name is so long he drowns in a well before he can tell his rescuers who he is\n<\/li>\n
- Todoroki Keikoku (Thunder Canyon)\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Tomoe School is a shabby old school;
\nInside though; it’s a splendid school!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n- folk songs:
\n“Carp Streamers”
\n“The Doll Festival”
\nOver the sea of rooftops,
\nOver the sea of clouds…<\/p>\n
\nCome let us light the lanterns,
\nLight them one by one…\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n- Kabuki play Kanjincho (“The Fund-Raising Charter”)\n
\n
- Yoshitsune\n<\/li>\n
- Togashi\n<\/li>\n
- Benkei\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
- Denenchofu<\/i>\n<\/li>\n
- Daddy’s brother “Uncle Shuji” is Shuji Taguchi ( aka Shu Taguchi )
\n of the Nihon News in New York, and the Far East representative of
\nAmerican Metro-News\n<\/li>\n- film “Battle of Rabaul”\n<\/li>\n
- new word: sawakai<\/i> (“tea party)”
\ninstead of sobetsukai<\/i> (“farewell party”)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n- what are “funeral dumplings” ?<\/li>\n
- classmate Aiko Saisho – her great-uncle is Admiral Togo of the Russo-Japanese War
\nand relative Atsuko Saisho is a poetess for Emperor Meiji<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n4770020678<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I had forgotten how wonderful this book is. My elementary school, Ohlone, was founded on many of the same principles Totto-chan’s school Tomoe Gakkuen was. Our teachers would read us stories from this book in fourth grade and even before. Japanese talk-show host Tetsuko Kuroyanagi reminisces about her elementary school, Tomoe, but entirely in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-looky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5035\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ikillspies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}