How the Jungle Book came to Taiwan

English Translation created via: http://tysharon.blogspot.com/2015/09/blog-post.html

In 1962, The Oriental Publishing House of Taiwan published a Traditional Mandarin version of "The Jungle Book", translated into the language from English (via Japanese) by Liu Yuen Hsiao. Liu Yuen Hsiao said in "Writing Ahead" that this story was written by Mr. Rudyard Kipling, a great British writer; but in fact it was not based on the English version, but instead on a Japanese version ("ジヤングル ブック") written by Yoichiro Minami, published by Kodansha in 1951. The Japanese version of the book title uses the katakana phonetic derivation ‘Janguru Bukku’, which is very special.

The story is set in India, and the protagonist is Mowgli, a boy raised by wolves. Mowgli is said to mean "frog" in the wolf language, because the wolf mother thought he was naked like a frog, so she named him "Mowgli". The kid grew up with wolves and some kind jungle friends like Baloo the brown bear and Bagheera the panther. There are also a few enemies for him, like the tigers and the monkeys. Later, he was expelled by the jungle animals and returned to his native human society, but he didn't adapt well yet. After some adventures, he finally decided to return to human society under the persuasion of his jungle friends.

This story is quite romantic, the jungle society is also very civilized and orderly, and the friendship is sincere and touching. It was my favourite book when I was a child. Liu Yuen Hsiao said in "Writing Ahead": When I came to the UK five years ago, I stopped by to visit the London City Boy Scouts' camp. When I chatted with them, I told them that I had also read "The Jungle Story", and they were greatly surprised and shouted. He got up and said, "Ah! You have also read... the Chinese version, you have also read... It". After a while, he seemed to wake up and said, "By the way, Mowgli is an Indian boy! You are Taiwanese Chinese, as both Taiwan and India are in Asia, no wonder you like Mowgli too!". 

In fact, it was Yoichiro Minami who actually went to the UK, not Liu Yuen Hsiao, who was merely a bragging translator. What those London teenagers said: "Oh, you and you're from Japan...", a boy said with a twinkle in his eye, but then another one immediately said, "Yes, Mowgli is an Indian boy, so you from Japan like Mowgli too!". 

Taiwan now also has the "Mowgli Youth Association", which holds the "Mowgli Summer Camp" every year to let everyone experience the natural life. I saw the new live action Disney movie trailer a few days ago, and the beauty is lovely, but Mowgli (as with the 1967 animated Disney movie) has a red loincloth around his waist (and also unmentionable parts), which makes me feel that something is not quite right. A child who grew up in the jungle should be completely naked, like the cover and illustrations of the Japanese version; after all, his wolf brother doesn't wear pants.

Yoshimasa Ikeda (1893-1980) was Yoichiro Minami's real name. He used his alias to translate the Literary Masterpieces, and his own real surname (albeit with Nobumasa as the given stage name) to translate the Jungle Book and etcetera. His indirect influence on Taiwanese children's middle grade literature is rather large. Liu Yuen Hsiao (1917-) is one of the most important translators of Taiwan's Oriental Publishing House. During the Japanese occupation period, he went to Japan to study at university, and after the war he founded the Chung Hsiao Japanese remedial class, and he still taught Japanese a few years ago, which is quite legendary.

Tezuka’s Jungle Kingdom: Characters

The Characters of Tezuka’s Jungle Kingdom 

Robin Kildare: Green eyed blonde Robin Kildare saw his unlucky parents getting killed by extensive corruption when he was about seven. Even before that, he lived with a bunch of former bandits. One of the ex-bandits taught him to become an errand, thus he travels through the southern African subcontinent. A surly beast man found him in a rut, but had trouble writing his first and middle names, thus he called him by the Sir like title Ki-GOR (pronounced Kai-Goor) instead. Robin has a very uneasy relationship with people from other ethnic groups, although he remains a snarky antihero who protects both his friends and most of the animals around them when necessary. He has a dagger and a shield amongst his many belongings. 

Ann Vaughn Kildare: Ann Vaughn is Rupert’s auburn haired girlfriend and later wife, who crashed into the tropical forest and was rescued by Ki-Gor himself. Although he understood consent, she hesitated in dating him as a final option, just until her boss, a food magnate who messed over his own highly underpaid workers, assaulted them and got away with kicking them out into her birthplace. As a result, both had to marry each other and lived there for a while, only to return once they’re reminded that the unlucky village where he once lived was destroyed by its mobsters.

Rue Kildare: Since Robin’s a jewel to his wife, it’s possible that Ann has birthed a son and a daughter. The younger one is a blue eyed blonde called Rue. 

Chris Kildare: Rue’s twin brother, who himself an adventurer in his own right. 

Helen’s friends

George Spelling: George Spelling is a lanky Black guy from Chicago in Illinois. 

Kamazila: A Zulu girl who joined Christopher and Luna in their South African adventures. Being adventurous, her alias means ‘off the paths’ in Zulu, a rather well known Bantu language spoken further southwards in South Africa. 

The Kildare family  

Barry Kildare: Barry was Orla’s husband and Robin’s father. He and Orla were killed off by extensive corruption in the jungle when Ryan was young. 

Orla Gough: Of Ki-Gor’s birth family, it was poor Orla who was the last to die. Her husband was Barry and her surviving son is Robin aka Ki-Gor. 

The Gough-O’Connors 

Jasper Gough: Orla and Erma’s father. 

Erma Gough O’Connor: Tralee born Erma is Colin’s childhood friend and wife, whose chauvinistic parents left her behind in Kenya, so she had to ride on a boat into what would become modern day Uganda. 

Colin O’Connor: Colin is one of the two stand outs of the Jungle Kingdom prequel to Jungle Agents For Hire. 

The Healy family 

Ginger ‘Ginny’ Smithson Healy: Orla’s dissatisfied old friend, Ginger Healy, was the mother of Hugh, Colm and Lucy Healy with her husband Robert. 

Lucy Healy: She is Robin’s long lost brunette friend, raised by the then-newlyweds Colin and Erma since she was about nine when Robert died. Her mother was Ginger Smithson Healy, one of Orla’s friends. 

Robert Healy: Colm, Hugh and Lucy’s well meant but rather chauvinistic father from Ennis in County Clare. Unlike his more stubborn wife Ginny, he was a raven haired missionary with blue eyes. 

Colm Healy:

Hugh Healy: 

The named animals

Ms Marmalade: Aka Marmo for short, she is a bush elephant whom Ki Gor finally befriended when he was looking out for illegal loggers. 

The Mabira Gang: a chimpanzee gang, which roams through the semi deciduous jungles of Kibale. 

Other uneasy allies 

The Gold Witch: 

The Silver Witch: The Silver Witch is herself an Irish castaway who has founded a cult in this variant. 

The Jackal Priestess: 

My reasonable translation of a great review about Life In The Mountains: Mountain Literature

Credited to someone else. 

NHK TV "Kokoro no Jidai" "Life in the Mountains: Mountain Literature"

Toshikatsu Ue's "Life in the Mountains: Mountain Literature", which aired on January 27 and February 2 2019, was rebroadcast on October 13 and 19, and once again received a great response. The January and February broadcasts are introduced in this column (10). The rebroadcast of this time was announced at the beginning of October, just before. It happened to coincide with the publication of Ushioni no Taki, the 9th volume of Ue-san's new collection of folklore novels (distributed on October 21st), so we were really happy with the rebroadcast.

In Kokoro no Jidai and Life in the Mountains: Mountain Literature, Ue talks about his journey from non-fiction to novel. 

"I wrote about my own experience working in charcoal making and forestry, and at the same time, I heard stories from older people about things I didn’t experience, and recorded them in my notebook. That's why I wrote a book about it, but when I started writing novels, I was able to use what I had heard and recorded in my novels. Now, when you introduce a person with a unique personality, create the people around you, or write a love story. My grandfather, my grandmother, my father and my mother, and myself, the world after the Meiji era, or rather the events and circumstances of the world, are all related to me by blood. I've been thinking about the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa eras."

And in the last scene, Mr. Ue declares: "In about two years (note: the program was recorded in the fall of 2018), I will finish writing this 10th volume (collection of folklore novels), and if I still have the energy and strength left, I will write more, this time about charcoal burning. I've been a charcoal burner for generations, so I'd like to write a full-length novel about the life of a charcoal burner from my ancestors to the present, intertwined with the changes in society. Yes, I will write a story about charcoal burning. No one has written it. It will also be the history of the mountains of Kishu, Kumano."

Next year, in 2020, the 10th volume, the final of the collection of folklore novels, and in 2021, a long novel is planned. Now, we escort runners must do our best not to fall behind. Lastly, I would like to talk about German literary scholar Osamu Ikeuchi. Mr. Ikeuchi, who loved hot springs in mountain villages, passed away on August 30th. Previously, Mr. Ikeuchi reviewed Nagare Segaki in the October 9, 2016 issue of Sunday Mainichi in his column "I want to read it now." Rest in peace.

A wonderful review on Kamishibai

Credited to someone else at an NHK companion site. 

"Kamishibai encyclopedia" from street picture-story show materials

The November 2019 issue of street performer Toshiaki Ueshima's "Street Performer Asia Monthly Report" has been sent. Among them, Mr. Ueshima's article on the street Kamishibai (picture-story show) is interesting. It is said that the Yokohama City Historical Museum regularly performs a picture-story show. In 2010, the same museum held an exhibition titled "Ogami Shibai Exhibition: Reviving Showa Street Culture." There is also a pictorial record.

The article introduces facilities for street Kamishibai (picture-story show) collections in various parts of Japan. When I think of Kamishibai (picture-story shows), I think of Koji Kata's Showa History of Kamishibai (Rippu Shobo, 1971, later Obunsha Bunko and Iwanami Gendai Bunko). I am deeply moved by the fact that it is preserved as a resource in various places.

When I was looking at a nearby library, I came across a book called "Kamishibai Encyclopedia" (planned and produced by Kamishibai Bunka no Kai, Doshinsha, 2017). Kamishibai, a unique form of Japanese culture, has now taken over from street picture-story shows to kindergarten picture-story shows, and then to published picture-story shows, and is said to have spread to 46 countries and regions worldwide. Among the authors are the poet Arthur Binard and the picture-story show and picture book author Hideko Nagano.

The History of modern Kamishibai is quite interesting.

In 1930, the modern day Hirai-E Kamishibai was created as a hand-drawn street picture-story show by Japanese hands. The street picture-story show was a tool to attract people to sell candy. In 1935, there were about 2,000 street picture-story shows in Tokyo. In the 1940s, war propaganda picture-story shows became popular. After the war, the street picture-story show revived from the burnt ruins. Around 1950, it is said that there were 50,000 street picture-story shows nationwide. Publication of educational picture-story shows began in the post-war cultural movement. Around 1960, with the advent and spread of television, street picture-story shows declined.

Doshinsha, the publisher of "Kamishibai Encyclopedia", is primarily known as a publisher of children's books and picture books, but in fact, the company was founded in 1957 as a publisher of kamishibai, and has created a flow of published kamishibai works. As street kamishibai began to decline, it was around this time that published kamishibai began to be rented out at public libraries. This "Kamishibai Culture Association" was born in 2001, and as of October 2019, it is said that there are 958 members in Japan and 50 countries overseas.

Kamishibai has changed from street kamishibai to national policy kamishibai to educational kamishibai, but how has a Kamishibai picture been drawn? It was hand-drawn at first, then printed, according to the chronology. Someone told me that there is such a picture-story show site. It is the "Kamishibai Net" of Nagoya Ryugi Junior College Early Childhood Education Research Institute, and the "History of Kamishibai" in it. 

In 1934 (Showa 9 in this chronology), it is written that "Kenya Matsunaga, who incorporated picture-story shows into the extracurricular education of the University of Tokyo Settlement, created a mimeograph-printed picture-story show 'Life Guide'. There were picture-story shows that were mimeographed as well. Those mimeographed Kamishibais were produced in great numbers during the war.

Shinjuku Shobo publishes 3 books on the history of Japanese pop cultural history; "Gariban Bunkashi", "Gariban Bunka wo Aruku" and "Gariban printed picture-story show".

The cast of Golden Bat

The cast of Golden Bat tends to vary rather wildly in terms of size and lineup. 

Black Bat - the first known character of that franchise, Black Bat is Golden Bat’s magnificent bastard of a spiritual predecessor. 

Golden Bat - the breakout and titular character of the franchise, Golden Bat is a mummified knight from the human past. His screwed up relatives include his dastardly father Black Bat and his adopted son Beanie Bat. 

Kan Nazō - Nazō himself wasn’t fully codified until Kōji Kata came along. By the time the Cold War began, he most definitely gained a mini-UFO dodgem and two fake eyes below his real ones. Although there are no excuses for his terrible actions, he was perhaps a passionately loony fan of his former idol Golden Bat, but only for a brief while. Unfortunately, he was also a victim of his heinous employer’s groping attacks. Later on, his more amicable ex minions medically amputated a few parts of his body (understandably due to them being so infected with polio that it hurts) and still have him frequently ride on a dodgem dumped out of a low budget theme park. A half-Taiwanese Hakka, Kan was unluckily discriminated against in his native Fukuoka. 

Moji Nāzo - Dr Nazō’s much older and promiscuous brother. He and Kan were inseparable until Moji himself became more of a serial pervert at the beginning of his adulthood. 

Beanie Bat - Golden Bat’s little human son, whom he adopted on his travels. Miriam is his girlfriend. 

Silver Bat - Golden Bat’s wicked younger brother. 

Dr Zero Enrico Nero - Kan Nāzo’s Romanesque Italian friend and ally.

The Civilians  

Emily Kline - Emily Kline is the Golden Bat’s friendly young lady agent. 

Miriam - Miriam is officially known as the hero Golden Bat’s pupil. She is a well endowed girl elf from the dreamland. 

Naomi Wise - Naomi Wise is Emily Kline’s short tempered and icy mannered childhood friend. 

Eri Yamamuro - 

Kamishibai survivors unite!

Kamishibai storytelling is not without its often record breaking survivors 

The Golden Bat franchise potentially has a lot of Kamishibai stories to tell. Although not many of them have survived the tests of time, most of the ones that do survive at all have been reprints or (often partial) reconstructions in varying conditions. Frankly, the first consistently named characters of that franchise are Golden Bat and his most monstrous enemies, the magnificent bastard of a spiritual predecessor known as Black Bat (not to be confused with fellow US pulp heroes of the same name) and his more popular replacement, the legendary Doctor Nazō. 

Ichiro Suzuki, who was possibly born in 1905 (or 1906) and who might have left the face of this world a few decades ago, was the franchise’s first known writer, even though Takeo Nagamatsu (1912-61) and Kōji Kata (1918-98) are generally considered to be its true spiritual creators, due to having been referenced more often than not in Japanese popular culture. 

The Prince of Planet Gamma, first appearing at the same time as Golden Bat, has a surviving postwar remake which lasted for about 58 short volumes, not bad for something which is only partially found. One of The Prince of Planet Gamma’s notable post war makers was one of Toki Okamoto’s children, Sanpei Shirato’s fellow sibling, Tetsuji Okamoto.