was one of the first Japanese '' shōjo'' magazines. It was published by Hakubunkan from 1906 to 1931 and specializing in

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

. The magazine focused primarily on shōjo shōsetsu (lit. "girls' novel", a term for illustrated novels and poems aimed at an audience of girls) and only incidentally on manga.

History

The ''Shōjo Sekai'' magazine was initially edited by renowned children's author , better known by the pen name .

. Retrieved 16 September 2008. ''Shōjo Sekai'' was created as a sister magazine to , which was also edited by Iwaya, and which began publication in 1895. The magazine's early fiction output tended to be of a didactic nature, with tales about self-sacrifice and the importance of obeying one's parents. The stories then started to focus on passionate bonds between girls, often featuring tones typical of the Class S genre. According to Kiyoko Nagai, for the first ten years of its publication it was the best-selling shōjo magazine of the time, with peak circulations somewhere between 150,000 and 200,000 copies per issue.Nagai, Kiyoko () (2000). . In , edited by Nobuko Kohno (), pp. 278-311. Tokyo: Fujiwara Shoten . . The final issue of ''Shōjo Sekai'' was the December 1931 issue.

Contributors

''Shōjo Sekai'' had a number of well known contributors over the years, including the following: * Sazanami Iwaya ( :ja:巌谷小波), author, children's author, editor, publisher *

Yasunari Kawabata was a Japanese novelist and short story writer whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the 1968 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first Japanese author to receive the award. His works have enjoyed broad international appeal and ...

, novelist and short story author * Chiyo Kitagawa (), children's author * Tama Morita, essayist * Midori Osaki ( :ja:尾崎翠), novelist * Kikuko Oshima (), author *

Akiko Yosano , known by her pen name Yosano Akiko (Shinjitai: , Kyūjitai: , ), was a Japanese author, poet, feminist, pacifist, and social reformer, active in the late Meiji era as well as the Taishō and early Shōwa eras of Japan. She is one of the most ...

, poet, feminist, pacifist, and social reformer * Nobuko Yoshiya, author

References

External links

* 1906 establishments in Japan 1931 disestablishments in Japan Children's magazines published in Japan Defunct literary magazines published in Japan Magazines established in 1906 Magazines disestablished in 1931 Magazines published in Tokyo {{child-mag-stub