Kenjiro Tsukahara

Background

Kenjiro Tsukahara was born on the 16th of February, 1895, in Tojo village, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. He was the eldest son of the translator Ryoichi Tsukahara.

Education

Kenjiro Tsukahara dropped out of Nagano Prefecture Matsushiro Town Matsudai Municipal Agricultural Commercial School (Matsushiro Agricultural Trading, the current Matsushiro High School), and after that, in 1916, went to Tokyo to seek a literary career and studied under writer Shimazaki Fujimura from 1916. In 1919, spent six months at novelist Saneatsu Mushanokoji’s Atarashiki-mura.

Career

After his maiden work was accepted and published by the Child Koron magazine in 1921, he took to writing in earnest. His earlier works were mostly fairy-tales written for children’s magazines, such as Abai Tori, but later after his association with Consumers Cooperative Union and the children’s society in his neighborhood at Kichijoji, Tokyo, he took to serious writing, basing his themes on actualities of life.

Among his works are Hatsutabi (First Travel), Shichikai-no-Kodomo (Children on the Seventh Floor), Kodomo Toshokan (Children's Library) and Fusen-wa Sora-ni (A Toy-Balloon Soars to the Sky).

Works

More photos

• book

  • Children of the Seventh Floor

    (Japanese edition)

    1971
  • Japanese Fairytales 1956

Connections

Father:

Ryoichi Tsukahara