Red Bird Monument

RED BIRD MONUMENT

(Literary Monument Dedicated to Miekichi Suzuki)

 

Miekichi Suzuki (1882-1936), a distinguished novelist of the Meiji and Taisho period, was born here in Hiroshima City.  Some of his major works includes Chidori (The Plover) and Kuwanomi (The Mullberry).  In 1918, he launched the children’s literature magazine Akai Tori (The Red Bird) which gave birth to the first songs and fairy tales for children in Japan.  Miekichi Suzuki guided the teachers on how to write composition and free verse in order to develop children’s creativity and also introduced classic children’s stories from overseas.  He is known as the “Father of Children’s Literature” for his contributions.  This monument, the work of Katsuzo Entsuba, was built in 1964 and serves as a symbol of Hiroshima’s recovery from the devastation of the atomic bomb and the hope for world peace.  The inscription on the monument reads, “I will forever dream, simply as I did in my boyhood, and therefore suffer only a little.  Miekichi.”

 

 

Submitted by

Bryan Arnold