Abstract

"Are you guys zashiki-warashi?" Mr.Yamabiko uttered his set phraise. He always told us when the classroom was quiet wheter we were present or not. Zashiki-warashi are child-like youkai whom only children can see, not adults. It bring good fortune to the houses it lives in.
Mr.yamabiko came to our small school at Hatashiro town as the homeroom teacher of us fifth graders. At the open celemony on the first day of the school year, he said "I'm really looking forward to seeing what fun adventures await us". At the time, I didn't give much thought about the "adventures" that he had mentioned. I never thought that anything would happen. One day, we met a suspicious old man. He called himself "tengu"(a master of mountains) and disapered toward Urushidake. But surprisingly, we appreciated that he was the new superintendent of education of Hatashiro. Is he really not tengu, but the superintendent? On the other day, yasuo's younger sister watched kappa. More over, we looked at kitunebi(gohst fire) wavering at the camping trip on Mount Kotaro. Mr.Yamabiko and we 14 children started to examine legends in Hatashiro. Through the camping trip, sumo tournament, and any weird adventures, the children had glown up step by step. Tengu and Kappa really exist, or not? If there really was zashiki-warashi in the classroom, who might it be? And, did it bring good fortune to the classroom? But when they became adults, they should not see it. Mr.Yamabiko said, "You don't have to reinvent the person you are now, to become a goos adult. Any child who sees with his own eyes, and speak with his ownwords will grow up to be a great adult."

Author’s Information

Graduate of Tokyo Gakugei University. After working in the international business division of a foreign company, he became an elementary school teacher in Nagano Prefecture. Focused on language classes, broadcast education, and literary education. He is a singer and a songwriter, and manga writer, too. This work is a greatly revised version of work presented six times in 2017, during literary and storytelling concerts of regular live performances, and was awarded Japan Jihi-shUppan Bunkasho in 2019. Auther of "Rika Sentai Denchiman" published by Shinshu Kyoiku Publishing Company. Writer For "Let's Make Anime for TV" for "365 Days of Educational Broadcasting"(Holp Pubrishing). Narrator of "Tanoshii Nihongo", teaching materials for educating children overseas(Shogakukan).