Happy_(late)_80th,_Satoru_Satô!_(Japanese_fantasy_w

Not to be confused with the 63-year-old Japanese sculptor.

His birthday was Feb. 13. (I simply couldn't find his exact birthdate
until I got a Japanese librarian's help.)

He was nominated in 2004 for the Hans Christian Andersen Award.

http://www.jbby.org/en/andersen01.html#sato
Excerpts:

"Satoru Sato is a pioneer who opened the window of fantasy for
children in Japan. Before Sato, most fantasies of children's
literature were situated outside Japan, especially in European
countries. Sato wrote many fantasies for Japanese children that came
from a Japanese cultural background and children’s contemporary
lives......

"In his first book, Daremo Shiranai Chiisana Kuni (A little country no
one knows; Kodansha, 1959. Reprint Illus. Tsutomu Murakami; Kodansha,
1980), Sato borrowed the idea of characters, Korobokkuru (a little
people), from a legendary story of Ainu people, who are believed to be
aborigines living in the northern part of Japan. Korobokkuru became
one of the most popular types of characters in Sato’s work. 'The
little people are descendants of the little god, Sukunahiko-no-kami, a
korobokkuru of the Japanese mythology who rides in a boat made from a
sweet-potato skin and dresses in clothing made from feathers of the
wren.' ”

Titles include:

A little country no one knows, 1959
cover - http://www.geocities.com/gotefridus/andersen2004/images/1620378624litt...ountry.

The grandma’s airplane, 1966
cover - http://www.geocities.com/gotefridus/andersen2004/images/1250332160obasan.jpg

Leo Delibes' Coppelia; Adapted By Satoru Sato, 1970

Sankichi the fox Illus. Murakami, Tsutomu, 1971
cover - http://www.geocities.com/gotefridus/andersen2004/images/2401817088sank...ithefox

Korobokkuru flies in the sky, 1971
Okina ki ga hoshii, 1971
M.P. Mussorgsky's A Night on Bare Mountain, 1971
The chattering pot Illus. Murakami, Tsutomu, 1978

I Wish I Had a Big Big Tree, 1989
cover - http://www.geocities.com/gotefridus/andersen2004/images/4225339136ookinaki.jpg

The Never-Ending Forest, 1990

http://www.geocities.com/gotefridus/andersen2004/hca_writers2004.html
(few more details on the above - you have to scroll down 2/3)


BTW, if anyone can track down the birthdate for Japanese illustrator
Daihachi Ohta, please let me know - all I've found so far is the year
1918.

Lenona.