ABSTRACT
At the close of Farewell to My Books!, Kogito was compiling notes to be read by children and adopted as guidelines for their future lives. Three children’s books written by O
- e late in his career are in this vein. Under
‘My Soul’s Tree’ and Towards the ‘New People’ are both made up of a series of essays published in Shu-kan Asahi (The Weekly Asahi).1 On the other hand, Nihyakunen no kodomo (Children of Two Hundred Years, 2003) is a fantasy filled with adventure stories but at the same time a work of prophesy foretelling a bleak future for his readers unless there is change.2
The stories contain ethical values that O - e hopes to instil in young minds.
In all three books, O - e has set down in simple language his deeply held
beliefs and the social and moral concerns that have occupied him for a lifetime. The books contain, at least in part, a summation of his major themes, and for that reason are of enormous interest. Far from being simply reminiscences or entertaining adventures, O
