Songs of Childhood

Rokuro Taniuchi was born in Ebisu, Tokyo, in 1921. From the time he was a boy, he drew cartoons and pictures, which he submitted to newspapers and magazines. In 1955, he won the first Bungeishunju Manga Award, thus making his professional debut. The following year, the magazine Weekly Shincho was launched, and Taniuchi regularly created the cover painting. For the next 25 years until he passed away in 1981, he painted over 1,300 covers for the magazine. Taniuchi also created murals and picture books, along with many whimsical stand-alone small stories and images of childhood. He also interacted with schools and gave free art classes. David Boyd teaches translation at Kobe City University of Foreign Studies. He won the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature in 2018 for Slow Boat by Hideo Furukawa, in 2022 for The Hole by Hiroko Oyamada, and in 2024 for Takaoka’s Travels by Tatsuhiko Shibusawa. He is the translator of the Chirri & Chirra series and all of Ryoji Arai’s books for Enchanted Lion Books.