Terumi Fukushi
Director General
Reader Services and Collections Department

This article is a translation of the article in Japanese of the same title
in NDL Monthly Bulletin No. 614 (May 2012).

The title of this illustration, "Haetori-de," translated into "Catching Flies Day," looks funny but the events were actually carried out in past days. The movement to eradicate flies was started in the United States around the beginning of the twentieth century as part of sanitation movements. The movement was also started in the Taisho period in Japan, for flies were regarded as the vector of cholera epidemics at the time. Being settled as part of the campaign, "Haetori-de" was first carried out in Osaka in 1920. After flies swarmed over Tokyo because of the worsening of sanitary conditions after the Great Kanto Earthquake (September 1, 1923), August 15 was established as "Haetori-de" in Tokyo city in 1925 and people tried to exterminate flies. After that, "Haetori-de" events were carried out every summer. Both adults and children devoted themselves to catching flies, sometimes competing between each neighborhood association for a prize.

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In "Okamoto Kido nikki" (lit. Diary of OKAMOTO Kido), it is written that the Okamoto family received a bottle of soda from the neighborhood association for catching 103 flies on the day in 1925. The cheery and funny illustration depicting two pig characters with bags walking around catching flies (Photo 1) skillfully portrays the society of the day.

The author of this illustration, HATSUYAMA Shigeru (1897-1973) is well-known for his unique and fancy style. He was popular and worked actively for over 50 years.

"Kodomo no kuni (lit. Children’s World)" which carries this illustration (volume 15 number 11 (September 1936)), was one of the leading picture magazines for children featuring artwork of the prewar period. After its foundation in January 1922 when the momentum of Taisho democracy (a series of liberal movements in the Taisho period) was still alive, 287 issues (23 volumes) were published up to March 1944. The magazine is well-known for its focus on art, carrying stories, songs, music and dances for children accompanied by high-quality "pictures drawn for the sake of children" (called "doga" by TAKEI Takeo) in order that even small children who could not yet read characters could enjoy them.

Top artists were gathered from each field, such as KITAHARA Hakushu, NOGUCHI Ujo, SAIJO Yaso, NAKAYAMA Shinpei, OKAMOTO Kiichi, TAKEI Takeo, SHIMIZU Yoshio and HATSUYAMA Shigeru. The magazine contains famous children’s songs which many Japanese still know and love.

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On the other hand, the magazine also readily covered contemporary events, news of the period and developing situations of the day, exploiting the advantage of periodicals: the situation after the Great Kanto Earthquake carried in the issue immediately after the disaster (Vol.2, No.12), new vehicles (Photo 2 & 3) and machines (Photo 4 & 5), new snacks such as cake, donuts and chocolate and scenes of town, such as a department store where children are happily riding an escalator (Photo 6). These pages may freshly bring back scenes which are used to be familiar to many Japanese people or those which have been lost from people’s memory.

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Through "Kodomo no kuni," enjoy seeking for the fragments of past Japan still remaining in people’s memories.

Page images of "Kodomo no kuni" can be seen in the "Kodomo no kuni magazine article search":
http://www.kodomo.go.jp/gallery/search/index_e.html
and in a digital exhibition featuring this magazine:
http://www.kodomo.go.jp/gallery/KODOMO_WEB/index_e.html

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