Nahoko Uehashi 2014 Hans Christian Andersen Award Author Winner

Abstract

Nahoko Uehashi 2014 Hans Christian Andersen Award Author Winner Nahoko Uehashi Translated by Cathy Hirano Click for larger view View full resolution Nahoko Uehashi after receiving her medal (© GE Creatividad) Tales of Coexistence i am honored and profoundly grateful to receive this award. There are so many people I would like to thank for having made this possible. Let me begin by thanking the Directors of the International Board on Books for Young People, IBBY Founder Ms. Jella Lepman, and the Jury of the Hans Christian Andersen Award for their tireless promotion of peace and international understanding through the medium of children’s literature. Thank you to JBBY, which selected me as the candidate from Japan, and to Cathy Hirano, who has done such a wonderful job of translating my work, including this speech, into English, and who has supported me in many ways. Thank you to all the terrific editors and staff from Kasei-sha, Kodansha, Rironsha, and Shinchosha who made sure my works were published. Thank you to my family and to my partner, who have helped me to grow and who support me in all that I do. Thank you to the many authors whose works have enriched my life and nourished me, and thank you to my readers who enjoy the stories I write. I am deeply grateful to all of you. Let me also add, “Congratulations!” to fellow award winner, Roger Mello. When the Award was announced, my editor called me from Italy. It was eleven-thirty at night in Japan, but I could hear loud cheering in the background and felt myself whisked away from the night into the bright Italian sunshine. And it suddenly hit me that on the other end of the phone, it was just as surely “here and now” in Italy as it was for me in Japan. At that same moment, it was noon, night, and morning, and people all over the world were living their lives. Later, when I learned that the Jury had chosen me for this award because my works depict complex worlds and peoples with diverse value systems and environments, because they convey love and respect for nature and humankind, many episodes from my own life rose into my mind. And a thought, deep and sure, washed through my heart like a wave against the shore. The thought that if any one of these episodes had not occurred—if I had not met that specific person, encountered that particular book, done that certain thing—I would not be experiencing the joy I feel today. I grew up in an area of Tokyo known as shitamachi (literally, “downtown”). It is a very old area of the city that still retains its traditions and festivals and a sense of past eras, despite being located in the center of an ultramodern metropolis. As a child, I was physically weak and was often stuck in bed with a fever. But that proved to be a blessing in disguise. Because I was often bedridden, [End Page 87] my grandmother told me many tales, and my parents read me many books to help me pass the time. As a result, by the time I was five or six, I was completely addicted to stories. Click for larger view View full resolution In this photo, you can see me sitting on my mother’s lap with my hand raised regally in the air. It must have been a special occasion, such as my birthday, because my mother is dressed in the traditional kimono which she almost never wore. My grandmother is sitting on the left, holding my teddy bear. My grandmother came not from Tokyo but from southern Japan. She was a treasure-trove of folktales and a superb storyteller. Throughout my childhood, I would rest my head on her knees and listen to her rich repertoire of Japanese tales. The stories she told were not specifically for children but rather were oral traditions of actual events that had taken place in the area from which she came. These included such tales as that of a cat who kidnapped a baby from a farmer’s wife, carried it to the top of...