Need Help translating Antique Book

[Billbob3691]

Hi, I have what I believe to be a very old Japanese childrens book and would like to see if someone could help me by translating the cover to start with. Maybe title and author? I know the picture is very grainy and I may be able to find another camera to get a clearer picture with but for now I hope the picture quality is good enough to read.

[KyleGoetz]

It's at least pre-WWII because it uses an older way of writing certain sounds.

It's written right-to-left, and using the modern Japanese writing system, it would be written:

よいこども
下
もんぶしょう

With kanji,

良い子ども
下
文部省

Translation:

Good Child[ren]
second volume [of two]
Ministry of Education

Edit: According to a quick Google search, its publishing date is 昭和16年2月14日 (Showa 16, Feb. 14). This is Feb. 14, 1941. Here is some information about it (in Japanese): ヨイコドモ 下

The URL also has a link to a fulltext PDF. I might translate it for you later, but right now I've got to clean up my apartment (before the wife gets home!).

[Billbob3691]

Thanks!

Yes I believe it was picked up by my great grandfather at the end of WWII. So this was printed text? Do you know whether the images in the book are completely printed or if maybe they were painted by hand? The lines appear to be printed but the colors look like they may have been painted in after printing?

I am going to include another photo of the back cover. Looks to be maybe an author's or owner's signature? Once again I hope the picture quality is good enough to read.

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

It's at least pre-WWII because it uses an older way of writing certain sounds.

It's written right-to-left, and using the modern Japanese writing system, it would be written:


With kanji,


Translation:


Edit: According to a quick Google search, its publishing date is 昭和16年2月14日 (Showa 16, Feb. 14). This is Feb. 14, 1941. Here is some information about it (in Japanese): ヨイコドモ 下

The URL also has a link to a fulltext PDF. I might translate it for you later, but right now I've got to clean up my apartment (before the wife gets home!).

[Decimus]

Originally Posted by Billbob3691

Thanks!

Yes I believe it was picked up by my great grandfather at the end of WWII. So this was printed text? Do you know whether the images in the book are completely printed or if maybe they were painted by hand? The lines appear to be printed but the colors look like they may have been painted in after printing?

I am going to include another photo of the back cover. Looks to be maybe an author's or owner's signature? Once again I hope the picture quality is good enough to read.

It reads "Asano Teruko" (Family Name, Personal Name), and is a feminine name. Could be the author's signature, and here's an author with the same name, but she's a bit too young to have written that book.

Here's a list of Japanese author names, in English.

Google results for "Asano Teruko" OR "Teruko Asano", if you want to go through them.

Judging by the link KyleGoetz provided, the book is printed (印刷). It's intended as a school textbook anyway, so it wouldn't make much sense for it to be drawn.

'though... I suppose it's possible that the former owner might have drawn or coloured something in it. A lot of (younger) people tend to do that to their textbooks as well.

[KyleGoetz]

Well, I was going to translate it, but the PDF at that website is only one page that isn't a table of contents.

[siokan]

Originally Posted by Billbob3691

Thanks!

Yes I believe it was picked up by my great grandfather at the end of WWII. So this was printed text? Do you know whether the images in the book are completely printed or if maybe they were painted by hand? The lines appear to be printed but the colors look like they may have been painted in after printing?

I am going to include another photo of the back cover. Looks to be maybe an author's or owner's signature? Once again I hope the picture quality is good enough to read.

The written name is Teruko Asano(浅野照子). It is owner's name.
It is a colour printing.
Textbook in the first grade of elementary school.

[masaegu]

As siokan stated above, there is simply no chance whatsoever that 浅野照子 could be the author's name. In Japan, textbooks for elementary schools are always written by groups of people and their names aren't shown on the covers.

Even if that were the author's name, it would not have been hand-written in the cursive style on each copy like that in the pic when they had to print this book in the order of hundreds of thousands of copies.

[Billbob3691]

Thanks everyone! It's really cool to find the history behind a book that would have probably sat in a box with untold stories if not for forums like this.