Totto-Chan: the Little Girl at the Window

Totto-Chan: the little girl at the window / Tetsuko Kuroyanagi
trans. from the Japanese by Dorothy Britton
NY: Kodansha USA, 2011, c1981.
229 p.

This is a Japanese classic, a memoir of childhood by a very popular actress and talk show host, written in the 80s. It was written chapter by chapter as a series of articles for Kodansha's Young Woman magazine in 1979 & 1980, and then released as a complete book in 1981. Thus the chapters are complete stories in themselves, but as a whole give a wonderful picture of Tomoe Gakuen, the experimental school that Totto-Chan attended for only a couple of years just prior to WWII but which shaped her life irrevocably. 

It's a really charming book, disarmingly simple but full of nostalgia and an examination of children who didn't fit into the regular school system but flourished at Tomoe. Totto-Chan herself was enrolled in grade 1, as the regular school she was at expelled her (in grade 1!) because they couldn't manage her free-spirited ways. She couldn't fit in to the regimented school day, having boundless curiosity, restlessness and an inability to leave anything unexplored. The headmaster of her new school was a gentle man who loved nature and music, and followed natural methods of teaching children led by their interests.

The chapters cover her home life, adventures at the school from daily routine to field trips to sport days, and draw portraits of her fellow students and her beloved headmaster. Exploration of nature, music, books, social skills and more were highlighted, and when a child did something that might be considered "naughty" (many of which Totto-Chan was prone to) they were not punished but rather talked it over and had to make it right. It seems idyllic in many ways, but she doesn't gloss over the difficulties of some of the students, or the sad things that happened in those years. Also, the war was on its way, and the book ends with the end of Tomoe, bombed and destroyed, and Totto-Chan evacuating on a train in the night. 

If you're interested in personal memoirs of childhood, or in alternative education, this is a must read. It has a calm, appealing style which feels gentle and clear. This has been on my shelf for a long time; I'm so glad I finally read it -- I was completely drawn in to this life story.