Hirosuke Hamada

Hirosuke Hamada was a Japanese children's book writer. His birth name was Hamada Hirosuke. He was the first president of the.
Some of his most well-known works are The Red Oni who Cried, A Dream of a Gray Starling and Dragon's Tears, and a series of works known as Hirosuke's Fairytales.
Together with and Mimei Ogawa, he is considered one of the "Three Sacred Treasures of Youth Literature" in Japan.

Life and career

Hamada was born into a rural household in Takahata, Higashiokitama District, Yamagata Prefecture. During his childhood his favorite author was. He studied at the Yonezawa Junior High School, and graduated in English Language and Literature at Waseda University. During his junior high school days, he made doujinshi with Okuma Nobuyuki and Kamiizumi Hidenobu.
In 1914, the year he entered university, his short story “Downfall” was selected for the Yorozu Chōhō prize for best novel, and he went on to write several novels. In 1917, “Golden Rice Sheaf” won the first prize for a new fairy tale in the “Osaka Asahi Shinbun”, and he began to publish stories for children for the children's magazine “Ryōyū ”. The following year, Kosuke received the Kitamura-Torutani Award for “Dokyoshishi,” and eventually began to aspire to become a children's story writer.
In 1921, he moved to Jitsugyo no Nihon sha, appointed by Tōson Shimazaki and edited Yōnen no tomo magazine. In the same year, he published his first collection of fairy tales, "The Starling's Dream". After he left his job in 1923 due to the Great Kanto Earthquake, he continued to publish many fairy tales in the magazine. In 1925, he founded the Waseda Fairy Tale Society. In 1928, he got married.
In 1940, he received the Japan Cultural Association Children's Culture Award. In 1942, he received the Noma Literary Encouragement Award.
He received the Sankei Children's Publishing Culture Award in 1957 and 1961. In 1972, he was honored as an honorary citizen of Takahata, and a "memorial monument" was erected in front of the town hall.
In 1973, he died of prostate cancer at his home in Den-en-chofu, Ōta Ward, Tokyo.