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Vol 4(2), July 1, 2004
mi40004000149

English Japanese

A Japanese Children's Tale about the Essential of Music

By Rika Ikuno |Author bio & contact info|

I would like to introduce a story by a Japanese author Kenji Miyazawa. Miyazawa (1896-1933) was a unique poet and writer of children's tales who is most popular and respected among the Japanese people from young to old. He was born in Hanamaki, studied at Morioka Agricultural High School (both in Iwate Prefecture, located in the North-East of Japan) and spent his life with farmers. His heart was always with them, while he was also deeply attracted by spirituality and scientific studies. He only lived for 37 years old and only one children's tales collection and one poetry book were published during his life. However the works he left behind were discovered later and highly appreciated because of Miyazawa's deep spirit.

This story "Gorsh the Cellist" is a tale about a cellist who is always looked down upon in his orchestra. Gorsh experiences mysterious encounters with animals in four sequential nights. Through these events which suggest the essentials of music (including its therapeutic power), Gorsh somehow grew as a true musician...

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"Gorsch the Cellist"

By Kenji Miyazawa
[This text was originally published in From Once and Forever: The Tales of Kenji Miyazawa. Translated by John Bester. Copyright 1993 and 1997 by Kodansha International. All rights reserved. The text was published on the Voices with the permission of Kodansha-Interantional for three months (July 1-November 1, 2004). This period has expired, and we recommend the readers who are interested, to access the original book The Tales of Miyazawa Kenji (ISBN4-7700-2081-3).]