Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window

Totto-chan, the Little Girl at the Window is a book written by Japanese television personality Tetsuko Kuroyanagi about her childhood at Tomoe Gakuen, an alternative elementary school founded by educator Sosaku Kobayashi.

In Japanese Madogiwa (窓際) often means having no company to keep or lonesome.

Plot synopsis

The book begins with Totto-chan's mother coming to know of her daughter's expulsion from public school. Her mother realizes that what Totto-chan needs is a school where more freedom of expression is permitted. Thus, she takes Totto-chan to meet the headmaster of the new school, Mr. Kobayashi. From that moment a friendship is formed between master and pupil. The book goes on to describe the times that Totto-chan has, the friends she makes, the lessons she learns, and the vibrant atmosphere that she imbibes. All of these are presented to the reader through the eyes of a child. Thus the reader sees how the normal world is transformed into a beautiful, exciting place full of joy and enthusiasm. The reader also sees in their role as adults, how Mr. Kobayashi introduces new activities to interest the pupils. One sees in Mr. Kobayashi a man who understands children and strives to develop their qualities of mind, body and heart. His concern for the physically handicapped and his emphasis on the equality of all children are remarkable. In the school, the children lead happy lives, unaware of the things going on in the world. World War 2 has started, yet in this school, no signs of it are seen. But one day, the school is bombed, and was never rebuilt,even though the headmaster did claim that he looked forward to building an even better school the next time round. However,it was never done and this ends Totto-chan's years as a pupil at Tomoe Gakuen.

Publishing history

Totto-chan was originally published in Japan as a series of articles in Kodansha's Young Woman magazine appearing from February 1979 through December 1980. The articles were then collected into a book, which made Japanese publishing history by selling 4,500,000 in a single year. The book has the ISBN 4-7700-1010-9 .

An English edition, translated by Dorothy Britton, was published in America in 1982. That book has the ISBN 0-87011-537-5 . The book is also translated into Chinese, Malay, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Thai, Russian, and Lao, and many Indian languages including Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam, [Telugu as RailuBadi] etc. There is also a bilingual collection of the "best of" some of the stories, ISBN 4-7700-2127-5 .

Related works

Kuroyanagi founded the Totto-chan Foundation, which professionally trains deaf actors to bring live theater to the deaf community.

In 2000, Kuroyanagi published her book Totto-Chan's Children: A Goodwill Journey to the Children of the World, about her travels around the world on her humanitarian mission as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

An orchestral interpretation of the work was written by Japanese composer Akihiro Komori, which was released as a record.