ふるさと (Furusato)

A gentle, wistful journey back to the hills of Nagano, this is Tōson Shimazaki's second collection of children's stories, written as if speaking directly to his own children. Here, the author becomes a boy again, wandering the mountains and valleys around Magome where he spent his first nine years. Horses speak. Birds counsel. Ancient trees offer wisdom. The natural world of his homeland breathes with personality and warmth, transforming ordinary childhood moments into something luminous. But beneath this tenderness lies the quiet ache of departure: the book closes with the boy's reluctant departure along the Nakasendo road, leaving behind everything familiar to pursue an education in distant Tokyo. This is not merely nostalgia, but a meditation on how we carry our hometowns inside us forever, how the place that forms us is also the place we must leave.