Author · 1913–1943
新美南吉Niimi Nankichi · にいみ なんきち
Niimi Nankichi was a Japanese writer of children's stories, poems and songs from Handa in Aichi Prefecture. The countryside of that area is widely thought to lie behind the village and hills of Gongitsune. He began writing as a young man. Gongitsune appeared in the children's magazine Akai Tori (The Red Bird), edited by Suzuki Miekichi. Niimi later worked as a teacher at a girls' school while continuing to write. His health was poor, and he died of tuberculosis while still in his twenties. Many of his works were published and became widely known only after his death. Besides Gongitsune, he is especially remembered for Tebukuro wo Kai ni (Buying Mittens).
Stories by Niimi Nankichi
去年の木 — The Tree the Bird Sang To
去年の木 (The Tree the Bird Sang To) is a very short fable by Niimi Nankichi, the children's author best known for ごんぎつね. A small bird and a tree are close friends, and every day the bird sings to the tree. When winter comes the bird has to fly…
飴だま — The Samurai and the Last Sweet
飴だま is a very short children's story by Niimi Nankichi, told in a few scenes aboard a small river ferry on a warm spring day. A mother and her two small children climb down from the embankment and board the boat. Just as it pushes off, a…
狐 — The Fox in the New Clogs
"Fox" is a short story for children by Niimi Nankichi, told in five brief parts. On a moonlit spring evening, a group of village children walk to a night festival in the neighbouring town of Hongō. On the way, little Bunroku, who has been…
赤い蝋燭 — Something Red from the Village
赤い蝋燭 is a short animal fable told in the gentle voice of a storyteller speaking to children. A monkey finds a red candle near a human village and, never having seen one before, decides it must be a firework. The animals of the mountain are…
ごん狐 — Gon's Chestnuts
Gongitsune is one of the best-known children's stories in Japan and has long been a staple of elementary school textbooks. The narrator says he heard it as a child from an old man in his village. It follows Gon, a lonely little fox who…
二ひきの蛙 — The Green Frog and the Yellow Frog
二ひきの蛙 is a very short fable by Niimi Nankichi, the writer of children's stories best known for ごんぎつね and 手袋を買いに. A green frog and a yellow frog run into each other in the middle of a field. Each thinks its own colour is the finer one, and…
おじいさんのランプ — The Lamp in Grandfather's Storehouse
This is a story within a story. On a spring day, a boy named Tōichi finds a strange old lamp in the family storehouse while playing hide-and-seek. His grandfather is gruff at first, then softens and begins to tell the story behind it. The…
手袋を買いに — Off to Buy Mittens
手袋を買いに is a short children's tale about a mother fox and her small cub on one snowy winter day and night. The cub sees snow for the first time and comes home with frozen paws, so his mother decides he needs mittens from the town. Fear of…