Issun Boshi: The One-Inch Boy

by Icinori

Overview

This classic Japanese fairy tale tells the story of Issun Boshi, the tiny son of an old, long childless couple. Tiny and brave—these are the two most striking characteristics of Issun Boshi. His mother had longed to have a child for so many years that she finally added "even if it is a very small one" to her wish. When the elderly couple did in fact bear a son, he turned out to be only one inch high. He was thus called Issun Boshi, Japanese for one-inch boy. Although his parents raised him very lovingly, Issun Boshi realized one day that he would not grow any taller. He then left his home to set off on a journey to find his place in the world. Because he saw himself as a swordfighter, a samurai, he made sure to take along the right equipment: a needle was his sword, a soup bowl was his boat, and a chopstick was its rudder. As in any proper fairy tale, Issun Boshi is tested in several adventures. He handles himself so bravely that, in the end, he is rewarded with just the right princess.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783899557183
Publisher:	Gestalten
Publication date:	03/18/2014
Edition description:	Translatio
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 13.10(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

Editorial Reviews

06/23/2014
“We’d like a little boy, any size at all,/ We’d like him little, we’d like him small,” sing a childless couple; their wish is fulfilled by the arrival of a son who’s one inch (issun) tall. Despite his size, Issun Bôshi brings his parents joy, then sets off in search of his fortune, armed only with a rice bowl for shelter and a needle for protection. In the big city, crowds throng over an arched bridge; only boys and dogs notice the tiny figure. “Give me this little person, I beg you, he can read to me, sing me songs, and keep me company,” a young noblewoman tells her father. When an ogre abducts the girl, Issun Bôshi defeats him with his needle. Breathtaking silkscreenlike spreads created by the design collaborative Icinori (designers Mayumi Otero and Raphael Urwiller) are the book’s big draw; the artists use vermilion, warm yellow, and blue for bold, stylized images that pay homage to visual images of postwar Japan. Readalouds are complicated by the tiny type—just the right size, perhaps, for a one-inch boy to read. Ages 3–8. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"Breathtaking silkscreenlike spreads created by the design collaborative Icinori (designers Mayumi Otero and Raphael Urwiller) are the book's big draw; the artists use vermilion, warm yellow, and blue for bold, stylized images that pay homage to visual images of postwar Japan." —Publishers Weekly
"You rarely find such a meticulous combination of stunning art and melodic text as located here. Adapted from a Japanese folktale, Issun Bôshi by Icinori is a stunner. Regardless of whether or not you collect fairy and folktales, you need this on your shelf. Stat. Issun Bôshi, I am happy to say, never disappoints. It skips, it hops, it dives, it sings. It entertains fully and leaves the reader wanting more. It does not, therefore, ever come across as anything but one of the finest folktale adaptations you’ve ever seen. High praise. Great book. Must buy." - School Library Journal
"...the lively text reads aloud well. There are few picture-book versions of this traditional tale, and children will enjoy the plucky hero and the vivid, eclectic illustrations." -Booklist
"The arrestingly unusual illustrations will draw creative audiences, and the smooth retelling of a tale rarely heard by American kids will enliven readaloud sessions and provide a counterpoint to tiny European folktale heroes." The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, January 2015

From the Publisher

01/01/2015
K-Gr 2—This classic Japanese folktale about a couple who wish for a little boy and find themselves the parents of a child who measures a mere inch has been retold in collections and as a single narrative in picture-book format many times. Issun Bôshi fails to grow in stature, but he is brave and determined and sets out into the world with a needle serving as his samurai sword and a rice bowl for his boat. He finds a place at court, is swallowed by an ogre, pricks the monster's stomach, and escapes capture. The story is so beloved that it has influenced television shows and video games. This retelling is illustrated in accomplished four-color prints in hues that range from vivid to lurid. The graphic composition is powerful, but the bold, posterlike aesthetic might be more impressive to adults than to children. Every children's library should have a version of Issun Bôshi in its folklore collection, however, and there is only one other picture book edition widely available at this time. If a replacement copy is needed, this one is a reasonable choice.—Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Library, NY

School Library Journal

2014-06-25
Action and character take a back seat to the art in this tersely retold version of the Japanese "Tom Thumb."The story, presented in blocks of small type surrounded by acres of white or monochrome space, minimizes specific cultural or place markers but sticks to the standard plotline. In "a country far away," a peasant couple sees a wish fulfilled with the birth of a tiny lad who later sets out for adventure. On the way to a city, he meets an ogre who promises to use a magic hammer to give him full height in exchange for a certain "beautiful treasure." Issun demurs, then goes on to become playmate for a nobleman's daughter. She, after he rescues her from the ogre and uses the hammer on himself to grow, takes "a different view of Issun Bôshi," so that "their story is not yet over." The illustrations are as allusive as this final line—alternating stylized landscapes with scenes of theatrically posed figures clad in a mix of Japanese and Western dress and ending not with a view of the principals but a generic assemblage of items from earlier pictures. Looking like a series of screen or woodblock prints, the dazzling art features broad, opaque layers of high-contrast orange, blue and yellow with combed or rubbed portions to give the flat surfaces shading and texture. A classic underdog tale frequently outshone by the strong shapes and intense colors that each page turn brings into view. (Picture book/folk tale. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews