A Japanese Boy by Shiukichi Shigemi, book cover
Memoir PDF EPUB Audio

A Japanese Boy

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Under 100
First published
1889
Pages
58
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Listen to A Japanese Boy Audiobook Free

Read by Phil Chenevert · 3 h 40 min · 14 parts

  1. Ch 1 My Birthplace-My Grandfather-Tenjinsan.

    13:56

  2. Ch 2 Old Fashioned School-My Schoolmaster- The School House

    8:50

  3. Ch 3 The Kitchen-Dinner-Food.

    10:59

  4. Ch 4 Games-New School-Imitating the West-More About My School

    14:14

  5. Ch 5 Baths-Evenings At Home-Japanese Dancing and Music

    21:51

  6. Ch 6 Amateur Actors and Real Actors-Japanese Theatre

    22:41

  7. Ch 7 Wrestling-Story Tellers-Picnic and Picnic Grounds-An Old Castle Tradition

    18:53

  8. Ch 8 Angling-A Pious Old Lady And Her Adventure

    14:12

  9. Ch 9 The Yaito-A Witch-Woman-Aunt Otsune, Miss Chrysanthemum And Mr. Prosperity.

    20:56

  10. Ch10 New Year's Day-The Mochi Making-Old Time Observances

    16:06

  11. Ch11 Kite Flying-How I Made My Kite-My Uncle A His Rig Kit-Other New Year Games-How We End Our New Year Holiday

    15:55

  12. Ch12 Other Japanese Holidays-Tanabata And Inoko, The Boy's Days-The Shintoistic And Buddistic Ablution Mass.

    12:43

  13. Ch13 Our Priest And Boy-Priest-Our Dog Gem-Shaka's Birthday

    15:41

  14. Ch14 The Festivals Of Local Deities-School Again And Some Account of My School Fellows-Concusion

    13:50

A Japanese Boy (1890) is a public domain work.

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About this book

Shigemi Shiukichi wrote this short memoir as a young student in New Haven, Connecticut, and it was published in New York in 1890. He looks back on his childhood in Imabari, a small seaport on the western coast of Shikoku, with its shallow harbor, rice junks, fishermen's cottages under pine trees and streets where blacksmiths and stone workers each kept their own quarter.

The chapters follow the everyday life of a shopkeeper's family, from lessons with an old-fashioned schoolmaster to a newer school that copied Western ways, and on through meals, games, theatre, kite-flying at New Year and the festivals of local shrines. Some of the warmest pages describe fishing with his quiet, patient father on a river called Dragon-fire, and the grandfather who lived to eighty in a small house behind the family store.

Written in a language the author had learned only a few years before, the book has a modest, candid voice and small comparisons with America, such as his alarm at New York traffic. It offers a rare first-hand picture of provincial Japan in the Meiji years, told by someone who grew up there.

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Public domain book This work is in the public domain and free of copyright. Anyone may read, download and share it.

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Book facts

First published
1889
Reading time
About 2 hours
Pages
58
Language
English
Genre
Memoir
Formats
PDF, EPUB, Read online, Audiobook
Audio read by
Phil Chenevert