is one of the first Japanese ''
shōnen'' magazines. It was published by
Hakubunkan from 1895 to 1914 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 ...
. ''Shōnen Sekai'' was created as a part of many magazine created by Hakubunkan that would connect with many different parts of society in Japan.
Sazanami Iwaya created the ''Shōnen Sekai'' magazine after he wrote ''Koganemaru'' a modern piece of children's literature. After Japan had a war with Russia, a female adaptation of ''Shōnen Sekai'' was created named ''
Shōjo Sekai''. Also some children's books were translated to Japanese and published in ''Shōnen Sekai''. The magazine had many features too, such as
sugoroku
(literally 'double six') refers to two different forms of a Japanese board game: ''ban-sugoroku'' (盤双六, 'board-sugoroku') which is similar to western tables games like backgammon, and ''e-sugoroku'' (絵双六, 'picture-sugoroku') which i ...
boards and
baseball cards
A baseball card is a type of trading card relating to baseball, usually printed on cardboard, silk, or plastic. In the 1950s, they came with a stick of gum and a limited number of cards. These cards feature one or more baseball players, teams, s ...
. ''Shōnen Sekai'' was mentioned in many American books but no series were actually translated.
History
Japanese publisher Hakubunkan was aiming to create a large variety of magazines that would appeal to many different parts of society: ''Taiyō'', ''Bungei Club'', and ''Shōnen Sekai'' were the magazines created and all debuted in 1895 (the
Meiji era).
On the cover of the first issue of ''Shōnen Sekai'' it pictured both Crown Prince Munehito, and the other
Empress Jingū
was a Legend, legendary Japanese empress who ruled as a regent following her Emperor Chūai, husband's death in 200 AD. Both the and the (collectively known as the ''Kiki'') record events that took place during Jingū's alleged lifetime. Legen ...
who was conquering
Sankan (three ancient kingdoms of
Korea
Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...
). Inside of the issue were stories about these matters and
Toyotomi Hideyoshi
, otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods and regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: ...
's raid on Korea in 1590.
The pioneer of modern Japanese children's media Sazanami Iwaya wrote the first modern children's story ''Koganemaru'' in 1891 and also started ''Shōnen Sekai'' in 1895.
Shunrō Oshikawa invented the "adventure novel" genre, with his works being published many times in both ''Shōnen Sekai'' and ''
Shōnen Club'' and compiled into
tankōbon
A is a standard publishing format for books in Japan, alongside other formats such as ''shinsho'' (17x11 cm paperback books) and ''bunkobon''. Used as a loanword in English, the term specifically refers to a printed collection of a manga that w ...
format.
In the middle of the
Sino-Japanese War ''Shōnen Sekai'' featured many stories based on war, or acts of bravery upon war.
After the Sino-Japanese War, ''
Shōjo Sekai'' was created as a sister magazine geared towards the female audience.
Even before ''Shōnen Sekai'' debuted, Hakubunkan created special magazine issue that would focus on the Sino-Japanese War.
Features
The ''Shōnen Sekai'' magazine had many add-ins such as
sugoroku
(literally 'double six') refers to two different forms of a Japanese board game: ''ban-sugoroku'' (盤双六, 'board-sugoroku') which is similar to western tables games like backgammon, and ''e-sugoroku'' (絵双六, 'picture-sugoroku') which i ...
boards. The sugoroku ''Shōnen Sekai Kyōso Sugoroku'' was originally produced as a supplement to the ''Shōnen Sekai'' magazine and is currently seen at the Tsukiji Sugoroku Museum in Japan. Also packs of baseball cards were featured in the magazine in a February 1915 issue of ''Shōnen Sekai''. Players that were included into the pack were
Fumio Fujimura, Makoto Kozuru, Shigeru Chiba and
Hideo Fujimoto. Many works of children's literature were featured in ''Shōnen Sekai''. An example of this was Iwaya Sazanami (the creator of ''Shōnen Sekai'')'s ''Shin Hakken-den'' which had the concept of rewarding the good and punishing the evil a common theme to children's fiction in the 20th century. ''Shin Hakken-den'' was based on ''
Nansō Satomi Hakkenden'' from the
Edo period
The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
by
Takizawa Bakin. ''Shōnen Sekai'' carried many stories based on war, and acts of bravery upon war
written by Hyōtayu Shimanuki
yōdayu - In ''Shōnen Sekai'' some titles were also translated from other languages, for example: ''
Deux ans de vacances'' (a novel by
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright.
His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...
) was translated to Japanese by Morita Shiken under the title and ''
The Jungle Book
''The Jungle Book'' is an 1894 collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, who ...
'' was also published in ''Shōnen Sekai''.
[ ]
''Shōnen Sekai'' media in the English language
''Shōnen Sekai'' was mentioned various times in many English books. In the book ''The New Japanese Women: Modernity, Media, and Women in Interwar Japan'' mentioned ''Shōnen Sekai'' in the notes to chapter 3 as one of many magazines that Hakubunkan made to relate to different parts of society.
''Daily Lives of Civilians in Wartime Asia: From the Taiping Rebellion to the Vietnam War'' also mentioned ''Shōnen Sekai'' as a popular magazine of that time, with an additional mention to ''Shōjo Sekai'', its female equivalent.
''Issei: Japanese Immigrants in Hawaii'' mentioned ''Shōnen Sekai'' as just a publication of Hakubunkan.
In the book ''No Sword to Bury: Japanese Americans in Hawai'i During World War II'' had mention of Shimanuki Hyotayu who writes about immigration matters in ''Shōnen Sekai''.
''Shōnen Sekai'' was also mentioned in both ''The Similitude of Blossoms: A Critical Biography of Izumi Kyōka (1873–1939), Japanese Novelist and Playwright'' and ''Japan's Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji Period''.
The closest thing to an actual series published in English was ''
The Jungle Book
''The Jungle Book'' is an 1894 collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, who ...
'' which was originally in the English language.
''The Jungle Book'' was published in the United States by
Macmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd in the United Kingdom and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC in the United States) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be on ...
in 1894 and is currently being published by them in London.
Reception and legacy
''Shōnen Sekai'' was one of the most popular children's magazines of its day. Many other children's magazines of that time had very low circulations and were very short lived. ''Shōnen Sekai'' was the first of its kind and ran continuously from 1895 to 1914. "''Shōnen sekai'' educated and entertained at least two generations of Japanese children"
Modeled on ''Shōnen Sekai''
Choe Nam-seon
Choi () is a Korean family surname. As of the South Korean census of 2015, there were around 2.3 million people by this name in South Korea or roughly 4.7% of the population. In English-speaking countries, it is most often anglicized as ''Choi ...
founded a magazine, ''Shonen'', in Korea in 1908.
Notes
References
External links
''Shōnen Sekai'' page at National Diet Library (Pic 3)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shonen Sekai
1895 establishments in Japan
1914 disestablishments in Japan
Children's magazines published in Japan
Defunct literary magazines published in Japan
Magazines established in 1895
Magazines disestablished in 1914
Magazines published in Tokyo
Monthly magazines published in Japan