One night, alone on a hilltop, a young boy is swept aboard a magical train bound for the Milky Way. A classic in Japan, this tender fable is a book of great wisdom, offering insight into the afterlife.

One of Japan's greatest storytellers, Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933) was a teacher, author, poet, and scientist.

Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933) is now widely viewed as Japan's greatest poet of the 20th century. Little known in his lifetime, he died at 37 from tuberculosis, but has since become a much loved children's author whose magical tales have been translated into many languages, adapted for the stage and turned into films and animations. Recognition for his poetry came much later. "Strong in the Rain" - the title-poem of this selection - is now arguably the most memorised and quoted modern poem in Japan. Both intensely lyrical and permeated with a sophisticated scientific understanding of the universe, Kenji Miyazawa's poems testify to his deep love of humanity and nature. From a young age, he was fascinated by plants, insects, and especially minerals, which he collected. At school, his interest in nature deepened, and he began poring through books on philosophy and Buddhism, which were to strongly influence his later writing. Miyazawa drew on nature in a way that no modern Japanese author had before him. Where other writers tended to use it as a springboard for their own meditations, he saw himself not just as nature's faithful chronicler and recorder but as its medium: light, wind and rain are processed through him before being recreated on the page. His mode of active engagement with nature set him apart from virtually all other Japanese poets, and led to his work being largely ignored by the Bundan (the literary establishment) and misunderstood for half a century. But in the 1990s, he received unprecedented attention in the Japanese media. The compassion, empathy and closeness to nature expressed in Kenji Miyazawa's poems and tales appealed strongly to a new generation of readers.

Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933) is one of Japan's most beloved writers and poets, known particularly for his sensitive and symbolist children's fiction. This volume collects stories which focus on Miyazawa's love of space and his use of the galaxy as a metaphor for the concepts of purity, self-sacrifice and faith which were near and dear to his heart. "The Nighthawk Star" follows an lowly bird as he struggles to transform himself into something greater, a constellation in the night sky; "Signal & Signal-less" depicts a pair of star-crossed train signals who dream of eloping to the moon; and "Night on the Galactic Railroad," Miyazawa's most famous work, tells the story of two boys as they journey upon a train that traverses the cosmos, learning the true meaning of friendship, happiness and life itself along the way.

Japanese fairy tales - enchanting, enigmatic stories of animals, human beings and the great natural world. Dark and innocent, sublime and whimsical, Miyazawa's stories have the ageless feel of the best fairy tales. There are animal allegories such as 'The Ungrateful Rat' where a rude rodent insults all the objects he meets - until he meets the Rat Trap/ There are morality tales such as 'The Restaurant of Many Orders', where two hunters become the hunted. There are also transcendent stories of childhood and mortality like Miyazawa's best-known 'Night Train to the Stars', where a magical steam train carries children through the night and up to the heavens. These stories reveal the unique brilliance of one of Japan's most beloved early twentieth-century writers. WITH A FOREWORD BY DAVID MITCHELL AND AN INTRODUCTION BY KAORI NAGAI 'Kenji Miyazawa fables are international-class' David Mitchell 'For readers who relish the disturbing material of fairy tale, the specificity and surprise of tanka, collisions of the everyday with the supernatural and glimpses of Japan right on the brink of industrialization, Kenji Miyazawa's masterly stories will be a delight' New York Times 'Few works have given me so much pleasure (and hard work) as the tales of Miyazawa Kenji [...] more genuine originality, and a more universal appeal, than almost anything else I have done.' John Bester, translator

Seminal translations from the large body of Miyazawa Kenji's poetry. Considered to be one of the greatest modern Japanese poets, Miyazawa is also, "the poet of the Tsunami recovery." The editor selected brief lines from Miyazawa's best known works and they are juxtaposed with lovely photographs by Japanese photojournalist, Kenji Okuhira. Readers can see not only Miyazawa's homeland, but also images of the Tsunami disaster of 2011. There is a beautiful visual exposition of Zen in this book that matches the poetry of the master, Miyazawa. The book is in English and Japanese.

The poet Miyazawa Kenji (1896-1933) was an early twentieth-century Japanese modernist who today is known worldwide for his poetry and stories as well as his devotion to Buddhism. "Miyazawa Kenji: Selections" collects a wide range of his poetry and provides an excellent introduction to his life and work. Miyazawa was a teacher of agriculture by profession and largely unknown as a poet until after his death. Since then his work has increasingly attracted a devoted following, especially among ecologists, Buddhists, and the literary avant-garde. This volume includes poems translated by Gary Snyder, who was the first to translate a substantial body of MiyazawaOCOs work into English. Hiroaki SatoOCOs own superb translations, many never before published, demonstrate his deep familiarity with MiyazawaOCOs poetry. His remarkable introduction considers the poetOCOs significance and suggests ways for contemporary readers to approach his work. It further places developments in Japanese poetry into a global context during the first decades of the twentieth century. In addition the book features a Foreword by the poet Geoffrey OOCOBrien and essays by Tanikawa Shuntaro, Yoshimasu Gozo, and Michael OOCOBrien."

One day, two gentlemen from Tokyo went for hunting and found a rather impressive looking restaurant in the middle of a woods. But there is really something wrong with this restaurant...

JAPANESE - ENGLISH EDITION

Two tales from the master storyteller Kenji Miyazawa

"Matsuri no Ban" - Ryoji goes to the autumn festival that takes place in the village near his home. There he encounters a giant man with eyes the colour of "grubby gold." Is he, as the villagers claim, the Mountain Man of legend and is Ryoji wise to try to help him?

Kenji Miyazawa is well known for his tales of fantasy, but this story, although it contains an element of the supernatural, is firmly based in reality.

"Futari no Yakunin" - Very early one Sunday morning, two young boys set out to visit the fields outside the town where they live. When they are nearly at their destination they find that a notice board has been erected telling the public to "Keep Out." Despite the warning they decide to continue with their outing...

Told in the first person, this is a superb example of Miyazawa's "un-magical" writing. The characters and locations are acutely observed and lovingly described in a way which powerfully evokes the lost days of childhood.

In both these stories the characters very often speak colloquially, using language that is outside the province of most language learning text-books. Because of this extra pains have been taken to highlight and explain idiomatic expressions and contractions in speech and, although it is never possible to make a word for word translation from one language to another, all the speech has been translated, as literally as possible, into English.

This Japanese-English edition features:

- Modern Japanese text

- Kanji with furigana readings

- Detailed notes in English

*Recommended for advanced beginner and intermediate students.

About the authors -

Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933) is often referred to as a writer of children's literature, but although his stories may appear simple they are far from child-like in conception or execution. Among his best known tales are "Gingatetsudo no Yoru" and "Cello Hiki no Goshu" both of which been made into animated films.

The English text was prepared by Elizabeth Plain, whose other works include the popular Kanji-Kan series of puzzle books.

From Wikipedia: Night on the Galactic Railroad (Ginga Tetsudo no Yoru), sometimes translated as Milky Way Railroad, Night Train to the Stars, or Fantasy Railroad In The Stars, is a classic Japanese novel by Kenji Miyazawa written around 1927. The nine-chapter novel was posthumously published in 1934 as part of Complete Works of Kenji Miyazawa Vol. 3 (aea(R)(R)ae e ae "a...e a c----a ea*") published by Bunpodo (ae-aauEa C).aFour versions are known to be in existence, with the last one being the most famous among Japanese readers.