Twenty-four Eyes

This is a story set on Shodoshima, a small island in the Inland Sea and the lives surrounding a primary school teacher, Miss Oishi, and the twelve island children (the twenty-four eyes of the title) in her first class. In the course of the novel, Miss Oishi faces problems of acceptance by the children and their parents, then ideological criticism from the educational authorities, then wartime privations and losses in her family and among her pupils. Differences of class, gender, and political opinion are finally rendered less important than a common experience of suffering. The book concludes with a tearful graduation reunion between the bereaved teacher and her original pupils, whose ranks are sadly depleted by the suffering of the past decade. Twenty-four Eyes, first published in Japanese as Nijushi no Hitomi in 1952, immediately became a bestseller. It was made into a film two years later by Keisuke Kinoshita, a leading director.

About the Author and the Translator

Sakae Tsuboi (1900–67) was born into a large family on Shodo Island in the Seto Island Sea. After finishing grade school, she worked as a clerk to help support her family before moving to Tokyo in 1925, where she married the proletarian poet and writer Shigeji Tsuboi, later to be imprisoned for his views. Partly influenced by his ideas and partly out of necessity, she began to write novels as well as children's stories for magazines. Her writings became very popular for their warm humanity and humour and received many literary prizes.

Akira Miura is Professor of Japanese at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and dean of Japanese language teachers in the United States.

Dimensions: 12.7 x 1.91 x 19.69 cm