[Funazaki Yoshihiko] Mt. Head あたま山

Tokyo: ポプラ社, Shōwa 48 [1973]. Illustrations by Hayashi Kyōzō (林恭三). Series: わらいの絵本, 1.
4to. 31, [1] pp., ill.

First edition of this text and these illustrations — and probably the first book to show Hayashi Kyōzō’s clay-relief technique.

A rakugo tale, told deadpan. Jimbē-san swallows cherry pits; a cherry tree grows out of the top of his head; crowds gather to picnic under it; the noise drives him to tear the tree out, leaving a hollow that fills with rain and becomes a lake — whereupon fishermen arrive and hook his nose. It ends as badly as it sounds.

Written by Funazaki Yoshihiko (1945–2015), who won the Akaitori Bungaku Shō the year after this book appeared and was placed on the Hans Christian Andersen honour list in 1976. Hayashi Kyōzō (b. 1939) built his figures as shallow three-dimensional objects in clay and then painted them. Yamamura Koji’s 2002 animated short of the story was nominated for an Academy Award.

Binding & condition

Original pictorial boards and pictorial dust jacket, illustrated endpapers. Near very good: jacket very faintly rubbed.

Rarity

No copy located outside Japan on OCLC.