Murakami Haruki and Children’s Literature Ⅱ

― Picture Books in Haruki Murakami’s ―

Abstract

As part of our work to confirm the connection with children's literature in the works of Haruki Murakami, we explored the meaning of picture books for Murakami. While Murakami has produced many novels, he has also worked extensively in other genres. At the same time, although he is not a professional translator, Murakami continues to publish more translated books than any other professional and is involved in the picture book genre as well. The first step was to compile all of Murakami’s translated picture books in a list format so that we could get a complete overview of his work. By identifying and organizing Murakami’s statements and words according to these steps, we traced the history of his relationship with picture books and confirmed his awareness and pride as a picture book translator. Meanwhile, in parallel with the fact that Murakami’s creative picture books, such as “Fuwafuwa,” which appear at first glance to be aimed at children, were actually written for adults, we can also see that his translated picture books are not just for children. Therefore, rather than Haruki Murakami’s works transcending the genre of children's literature, we should instead see in the essence of Murakami’s literature a fantasy quality common to children’s literature.