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Hara-peko onabe
[The Hungry Saucepan]
Akane Shobō, 1970. 94 pp. ISBN 978-4-251-00648-6.
Also published in: Chinese (traditional characters)
An old saucepan has spent her whole life diligently making food only for people. Now, tired of working, she wants to eat instead. Vowing that “from now on I’ll eat my fill of all the delicious things I want,” she leaves the house in search of food. First, she swipes a sausage from a rat and gobbles it down. Next, she meets a hen and swallows it whole, saying “I’ll eat anything!” Her next stop is a field, where she takes a seat and munches away at some cabbage and tomatoes. In the forest, she fights off a hunter to make a meal of a fox. Later, she even devours a whole cow out in a pasture.
Eating everything she comes across, the saucepan keeps getting bigger and bigger—but, because she still feels hungry, she begins to feel uneasy. She eventually meets a mosquito who tells her that she could go to the sea, enjoy all the fish she can eat, and even feast on a whale. The last scene caps off the hilarious, nonsensical tale with the saucepan blasting off into space, stretching the scale of the story even further.
The saucepan heroine has a thrilling vitality as she frees herself from the servitude of making food for people and follows her insatiable appetite in gobbling her way through a series of encounters. Watanabe Yōji’s charming illustrations add even more fun to the reading experience. Still a popular favorite today, more than 50 years after its release, Hara-peko onabe (along with Furaipan jiisan [Grandpa Frying Pan], 1969, also by Kanzawa Toshiko) stands as a masterpiece of children’s literature. (NA)
Eating everything she comes across, the saucepan keeps getting bigger and bigger—but, because she still feels hungry, she begins to feel uneasy. She eventually meets a mosquito who tells her that she could go to the sea, enjoy all the fish she can eat, and even feast on a whale. The last scene caps off the hilarious, nonsensical tale with the saucepan blasting off into space, stretching the scale of the story even further.
The saucepan heroine has a thrilling vitality as she frees herself from the servitude of making food for people and follows her insatiable appetite in gobbling her way through a series of encounters. Watanabe Yōji’s charming illustrations add even more fun to the reading experience. Still a popular favorite today, more than 50 years after its release, Hara-peko onabe (along with Furaipan jiisan [Grandpa Frying Pan], 1969, also by Kanzawa Toshiko) stands as a masterpiece of children’s literature. (NA)
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