やまおとこ山男のしがつ四月 The Mountain Man's April by みやざわ宮沢けんじ賢治
This piece is a short extract from a story by Kenji Miyazawa (
みやざわ
宮沢
けんじ
賢治
), one of Japan's most famous and intriguing story writers. Miyazawa, who lived in the first third of the 20th century, wrote a large number of children's stories as well as poems, often with a slightly macabre tone. This story was written in 1924.The full story, which you can find on Aozora, contains 211 sentences. This extract contains just nine sentences taken from near the end. The Mountain Man has been on a strenuous hunt in the mountains, and after his exertions falls asleep, and rather like Alice's Adentures in Wonderland, finds himself in an entirely unexpected situation. We join the story just as the Mountain Man has found a way to return to his normal existence.
As with many of Miyazawa's stories, this example includes some unexpected kana use, some rare kanji, and some unusual words. The style of the language, while quite typical of Miyazawa, is quite literary, and rather different to modern conversational Japanese. If you enjoy this extract, we encourage you to explore more of Miyazawa's works, which can in both senses of the phrase, take you down some very enjoyable rabbit holes!
This is an extract / adaptation from the original.
The source of this piece is:
Aozora Bunko
This text has been selected to suit reading level: Intermediate.
However, it includes some vocabulary and phrases that you would not necessarily be expected to know at that level.
We believe knowledge of such vocabulary and phrases is beneficial at any stage of Japanese language learning,
as they are commonly used in everyday language.
Many of the readings in the Reading Corner, such as this one, have additional notes in the introduction.
The notes often provide extra information that will help you get more out of the text, including links to articles in the Grammar library.
Additional notes are included with some of the individual sentences in a reading directly below the text.
