ABSTRACT
In Japan, “classic” girls' literature in translation is comprised predominantly of European and North American (mainly English-language) girls' fiction written in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. For generations, Japanese girls have cherished these works, which include Anne of Green Gables, Little Women and The Secret Garden. Translations of this girl literature began in the Meiji period (1868–1912), with one of the earliest examples being Seira Kurū no hanashi (1893–94), Wakamatsu Shizuko's serialized translation of Frances Burnett's Sara Crewe or What Happened at Miss Min-chin's (1887). Wakamatsu was to become one of the most well-known figures in children's literature in Japan, and is remembered as the first translator of Burnett's Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886). Also notable was the 1906 publication of Kitada Shūho's Shō fujin, the first Japanese translation of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women (1868). This novel would become a household name in Japan under the title given to the 1934 movie version, Wakakusa monogatari (The Story of Young Grass).
