The Little One

 
 
The Little One
by Kiyo Tanaka

translated by David Boyd

Enchanted Lion Books

2021

 

 

One thing I like about vacations is that the hotels usually have NHK, which is a bit like Japan's equivalent of BBC. Recently, I discovered an NHK channel on Roku. They often have half-hour segments highlighting a particular artist, or someone with an interesting job or hobby. Which is how I learned about Kiyo Tanaka, and her book, The Little One.
 

The Little One is a children's picture book. A little girl sees a tiny shadow creature. It leads her to a house and offers her tea, then leads her into the closet. The two explore and play in a mysterious night forest. Then the girl leaves, and goes home, and tells her dad about her day.

 
It's a simple story that's nicely ambiguous. It could represent an actual supernatural encounter, or just a little girl's imagination as she plays. The art is very cute, a little more realistic than cartoony, and the magic forest looks like a lot of fun.

 
The NHK segment on Tanaka focused on her art. She etches into copper plates, then inks them and uses them to make prints. If I hadn't watched the feature, I think I would've assumed her illustrations were ordinary ink drawings, but supposedly being etched and printed makes the lines softer, somehow. 

 

The Little One isn't Tanaka's only book, but it is the only one that's been translated into English.