List of Prize-winning Works
Click the title of a work to read it.

* For "Bees, My Friends" which won the Best Fairy Tale award,
only an outline is provided on this page.
This is because this work has already been published.

* For this work, only an outline is provided on this page. by Kyoko Imai (Tokyo) * This work was previously entitled "When Acacias Bloom." Outline Nana Yamazaki, a six-year-old girl, lives together with Father, Mother, and Uncle Tatsuro who are beekeepers. They travel together with bees in pursuit of blooming flowers. This life of perpetual traveling, a life of people who are sometimes romantically called "flower chasers," is no longer popular because of its hardships and inconveniences. But Nana's family observes the old family tradition that has been followed since the days of her grandfather. One night in Kagoshima prefecture, Nana overheard Father and Mother discussing whether they should entrust her with her grandmother in Kumamoto prefecture because she would be going to grade school the next year. True, she did not go to kindergarten and was a little envious of other children in her age. But, always being in the middle of nature together with her favorite family, she felt that she was the happiest girl in the world. In May when acacias bear white flowers, the family goes to Shinshu and visits a farm of Nae Odanaka, who was called "Granny Na." Granny Na was a godmother of Nana, who was born in this town. To her surprise, her favorite granny had passed away three weeks earlier and Nana was feeling very gloomy. It was a fine morning on the day that happened to be Nana's birthday. As she looked absent-mindedly at the sky, a bee came flying up to her and perched on the rape blossom offering on Granny Na's Buddhist altar. Nana gently caught the bee and ran to a hill nearby, where acacias were in bloom. She went up the hilly road, looking as if she wanted to enjoy every minute of her last trip with a bee. This story lively depicts how the little heroine grows up in nature through her participation in the work of beekeepers, also known as "flower chasers." This is a heart-warming work that tells us of the importance of the relationship between people and nature.

* For this work, only an outline is provided on this page. by Ibara Natsuno (Osaka) Outline Uncle Bear was the town hatter. One evening, he picked up a child's hat at a crossroads located very close to his home in the western mountain. He noticed some writing on the hat. It read "Tompe the Pig, Lakeside of the Far Lake," he decided to return the hat to its owner. When Uncle Bear was not sure of which way to go, he spoke some magic words that his grandmother had taught him, "Honey, honey, sweet honey, where are you?" Whenever he said these words, he would remember the taste of honey that his grandmother gave him and get his strength back. It was already twilight when Uncle Bear arrived at Tompe's house, full of vigor thanks to the magic words he had spoken. But Tompe did not thank Uncle Bear, who had kindly brought the hat back to him. It seems that the boy did not want his mother to know that he had gone off to the mountain in the west all by himself. A few days later, there was a white paper bag left at the crossings. Uncle Bear picked it up to find a thank-you letter from Tompe and a honey-flavored candy in it. When he ate the candy, it tasted like his secret honey. Then, he was suddenly overcome with the desire to tell someone about the lost hat and the candy he had received for returning it. This story of heart-warming ties between Uncle Bear and the little pig is sure to be loved by children. The incantation in the title helps to speed up the plot development.

by Yuriko Honma (Tokyo) by Kenjiro Nakamura (Saitama) by Kaori Haruki (Okayama) by Yukari Takami (Tokyo)

[Category of Picture Books]

No Winners

by Miyoko Uchida (Kanagawa)

by Taro Shiinomi (Tokyo) by Yumiko Ezoe (Saga)

"Sunflower Group" Pressed Flower Club at Kagamino Post Office, Okayama pref. Mayumi Nakazato Sanae Sasaki Akihide Yanai Michiko Nemoto Sadako Takasu Sumie Sakate Nobuko Otsuka Kimie Hirooka Tomoko Hattori Kyoko Uchida Hiroko Ikeda Masayo Tokima Emiko Ikegami Michiko Suzuki

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