A Study of Japanese Children's Magazines, 1888-1949

Although much research has been conducted in Japanese on the history of children's literature from the 1880s to the present day, and some scholarship on Japanese literature in English has touched on children's literature, there is currently no scholarship devoted solely to the study of children's magazines in Japan. This dissertation offers to the fields of Japanese literature and children's studies the important narrative of children's magazines.

The creation of a literary genre specifically for children in the 1880s was intimately connected with changing conceptions of gender, literature, the state, and childhood. This dissertation pays special attention to the utilization of children's literature for the purpose of nation building and gaining children's support for the war effort. In addition to outlining a previously unrecorded history, this dissertation addresses key questions such as: who was writing for children and why; what role did the state play in the publication of literature for children; how was censorship enforced and how did authors and publishers react to the censorship regulations; how are concepts of femininity related to concepts of children; how did Western ideas and modern technology affect the development of literature for children; and to what extent was the nation being commodified by magazines versus the magazines being used as a commodity to support the nation? ^ To address these issues, I have relied heavily on both Japanese and English secondary materials as well as some primary literature. I have included in Appendix B three translations of the Momotarō folktale to provide a concrete example of how children's literary trends and content changed between 1888 and 1949. I chose these dates because 1888 represents the publication of the first children's magazine, Children's Garden (Shōnen-en), and 1949 was the year that the Allied Occupation lifted censorship on all Japanese printed press, although censorship continued in the hands of the Japanese government.