Title: The Self-cultivation Guidance and Educational Practice of the Japanese Children’s Magazine Akaitori

Abstract: The children’s literature magazine Akaitori, founded during the birth of modern Japanese dowa, marked an important turning point in Japanese children’s literature. Akaitori opposed the rigid education model of Japan’s Ministry of Education and created dowa and doyo from an artistic perspective. It provided new opportunities for children to understand the world and improve their self-cultivation. Akaitori aimed to help readers acquire knowledge, establish correct values, develop good reading habits, enhance their Japanese language expression, and master composition writing methods. In the later period, the magazine transformed into a “comprehensive magazine”, and this publication process also demonstrated its objectives to improve the overall level of national self-cultivation. Analyzing Akaitori and investigating composition education can provide insight into the modern Japanese composition education model and inspire contemporary composition education.

Keywords: Akaitori, Suzuki Miekichi, composition education, self-cultivation guidance, educational practice, Japanese children’s literature

Author: Ziyu Lin, Ph.D. Candidate, School of Humanities, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.