たけくらべ

Why it matters

Takekurabe (the title is often given in English as Growing Up, Child’s Play or They Compare Heights) is a novella about a small neighbourhood where the adult world is never far from the children’s games. Four youths, Midori, Nobu, Chōkichi and Shōta, quarrel and make up around two festivals, while the Yoshiwara next door shapes what each of them can become. It still feels alive because the central pressure is not exotic: children are expected to follow their parents’ trades, and some of them see that clearly before they are ready to say so.

Higuchi Ichiyō knew this ground. In 1893 her family opened a stationery shop in a poor district near the Yoshiwara, and it failed. She is described as Japan’s first professional woman writer of modern literature, and she died of tuberculosis in November 1896 at 24, later in the year the final instalment of Takekurabe appeared. Mori Ōgai, Kōda Rohan and Saitō Ryokuu praised the work. It reached English in 1930 as They Compare Heights, in 1956 as Growing Up (Edward Seidensticker) and in 1981 as Child’s Play (Robert Lyons Danly), and became films in 1924 and 1955 (Gosho Heinosuke).

Watch how the story is organised by the festivals, which bracket the months and make the neighbourhood’s calendar feel real. Notice how the boys’ feuds map onto their families’ trades, and how the key change in Midori comes through a few small events rather than speeches. The Yoshiwara is never the subject and never absent. Meiji-era customs may need a note or two; a good edition with annotations helps. Higuchi’s portrait has appeared on the Japanese 5,000-yen note since 2004, a sign of where she now stands in Japan.

Introduction written for LitMundi with AI assistance and checked against the sources listed below.