Chapter 7, Section 3: The Start of the Children's Column
Was it structured with reference to children's magazines?
The Toyama Nippo established a "Children's Column" on the front page on October 7, 1909 (Meiji 42). A design featuring a child and a dog was placed in the middle of the page, accompanied by the following preface.
We have established a children's column starting today. While we plan to collect reading material that is as child-oriented as possible, we likely won't be able to produce anything very sufficient for the time being. (A Reporter)
The "A Reporter" refers to Reiko Oi. Perhaps because he had not made careful preparations, the opening is self-deprecating. The first installment consists of the following four parts:
Fairy Tale "Taro the Parrot" (1) by Kinendo
Origins of Things
Youth Current Events
Youth Jokes
The total length is 1,100 characters, occupying about one-sixth of the front page. "Kinendo" is the pen name of Jūjirō Nunomura (Kinen), and the remaining three parts appear to have been written by Reiko.
Origins of Things is a column introducing the history of items like "newspapers," "mail," and "wireless telegraphy," while Youth Current Events is similar to an "editor's note," covering national news and events that happened in the immediate vicinity. Youth Jokes are literal short gags, which would later be solicited from readers.
This structure was likely modeled after children's magazines such as Shōnen Sekai and Nihon Shōnen.
The children's column was published a total of 54 times on pages 1 or 3 until the end of 1909. From the following year, 1910, it was changed to the "Youth Column" and continued for about 60 more installments until the end of April. In total, it was published over 110 times in seven months.
Were there other examples in other prefectures where such children's or youth columns were established in daily newspapers during the late Meiji period, when children's culture was beginning to flourish?
Speaking of children's newspapers in the Meiji era, there was Takehiko Kurushima's Sunday supplement to the Chuo Shimbun, "Home" (published in Tokyo). It was launched on November 3, 1906, and was published weekly until issue 64 (January 1908). It reportedly had color pages and was an 8-page tabloid until issue 52. Kurushima himself, when he was a reporter for the Osaka Mainichi Shimbun, wrote the first children's column, "Kindergarten," on March 21, 1901, and serialized "Animal Sketches" every other day starting in 1902.
Reiko met Sazanami Iwaya and Takehiko Kurushima in May 1909. Although it was only for three days, he was exposed to the cutting edge of the children's culture movement there. The editing of children's magazines like Shōnen Sekai must have also come up in conversation. Both Iwaya and Kurushima were former newspaper reporters. Perhaps Iwaya or Kurushima gave him advice along the lines of, "Reiko-kun, magazine editing might be difficult, but why don't you start by establishing a children's column in a newspaper? I also created a newspaper for children when I was a reporter."
The top article of the Toyama Nippo children's column, the "Fairy Tale," followed Kinendo's "Taro the Parrot" (11 parts) with Sugako's "Unfulfilled Wish" (4 parts) and Asaji's "The Horse and the Five-Story Pagoda" (1 part), before it was finally Reiko's turn. From October 24 to December 13, he published a total of 38 installments across four works: "The Maple Siblings," "The Fox's Lantern," "Sparrow Shrine," and "Rain-Falling Taro."
Creative works written by Reiko for the Toyama Nippo children's column, 1909 (Meiji 42)
Koun Takada (Yosho, 1878-1945), a friend of the Takaoka Shinpo newspaper and a literary critic, contributed an article titled "An Overview of the Literary Circles of Chuetsu," in which he praised Reiko's efforts.
Furthermore, those in their prime at forty-two, being individuals themselves, should pay attention to the cultivation of their descendants, which is to say, the cultivation of young writers. This role was manifested through the children's column of the Toyama Nippo—the writers of short prose may be young, but they should belong to the youth section. The authors of fairy tale literature are entirely children, that is, descendants, and are the figures of the next generation. Therefore, although they do not have direct dealings with the literary world, the fact that they have pioneered a unique identity and territory as fairy tale literature is a fact that deserves special attention.
As for Koun Takada, I have already noted that he wrote a review in the Toyama Nippo when Reiko published "Etchu Otogibanashi" (Etchu Fairy Tales) in June 1909. On March 11, 1910, Takada joined the Toyama Nippo company and became Reiko's colleague.
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[4] Kito Nunomura, real name Jujiro. He authored "Sanso Dokugo" (Soliloquies from a Mountain Villa) in 1918. The preface includes contributions from Eka Inoue, Takehiko Kurushima, Reiko Oi, Kashu Funaki, Hakumon Yokoyama, Sukezo Takimoto, Mayoi Hara, Umo Kuroda, Suigan-ko Ninagawa, Gakuto Okumura, and Shaho Hayasaki. According to Hakumon's account, when Yokoyama was at the Toyama Nippo, he was an elementary school teacher in Nyuzen, Shimoniikawa District, but later contributed articles from the summit of Mount Nantai. He then reportedly began working at the forest weather station in Funakura.
[5] Junai Oshima, "Takehiko Kurushima during his time as a newspaper reporter and children's journals: Focusing on the digitization, preservation, and analysis of the Chuo Shinbun's 'Home' column," Bulletin of the Faculty of Letters, Kyoritsu Women's University, No. 57 (2011).
(2018.06.11)