Until the beans are cooked: Xiao Ye's story

Author: Ayako Nakajima (Japan) Peng Yi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: Ayako Nakajima creates a beautiful artistic world, her works are filled with strange fantasies, emitting a faint sorrow amidst sweet dreams. Readers can feel the poetry of life through her melancholic, ethereal, and dreamlike words. Ayako Nakajima excels at seamlessly weaving together the real world and the realm of fantasy, using fantastical stories to reflect the truth of life. Common themes in her works include loneliness, tenderness, nostalgia, and love. The author explores the profound question of what humans truly are through her unique artistic language and expression. Till the Edamame Cooks—The Story of Komari tells the tale of a little girl named Komari and the fairies, and it won the 2nd Japan Koji Tanaka Prize for Children's Literature. Komari's mother is the daughter of a yama-oba, who is a mountain spirit. Since her mother went back to her hometown, a village that requires crossing many mountains and is famous for its beautiful plum blossoms—even her father has never been there—Komari often wishes to become the wind to find her mother. Eventually, one day, she transforms into the wind and takes flight. She sees a deep valley filled with lilies, a herd of deer, and a mountain fire.