Reference
Susan Brown
The Park School
Upper School Art History, grades 10-12
Lower School Studio Art, grades 4 and 5
I loved Sakae Tsuboi’s "Twenty-Four Eyes." But there’s a caveat—and the caveat is that I loved the book upon reflection, not during the initial reading. The language is difficult; it’s stilted and for lack of a better work, archaic (perhaps that’s due to the translation, perhaps not). However, I couldn’t help but love Miss Oishi and her students—and I found myself wondering what teacher wouldn’t. The anti-war sentiments are compelling: somehow war is always with us, children we nurture grow up to become soldiers; they go off to war, some return and some don’t. We mourn their loss—we mourn our loss, and we wonder, like Miss Oishi, if the sacrifice is worth it.
"Twenty-Four Eyes" is a poignant, moving story. It is hard not to be charmed by mischievous children—and I was completely charmed by the sweet yet impish and at times ill-behaved nature of Miss Oishi’s young students. To the inhabitants of this rural Inland Sea community, Miss Oishi is all things modern and suspicious; she’s young, rides a bike and dresses in Western clothing. How can she be an effective teacher when she dismisses tradition? Slowly, however, this young teacher wins over this rustic village—first her students, then their families and the community at large. Her teaching style is at times progressive, taking her students out of the classroom to explore their environment and learn through songs. As times moves forward she quietly asks them to consider the possibility that the government doesn’t always know best—that perhaps the cost of nationalism and war is simply too great. Incorporated within these larger themes is Tsuboi’s lovely tale of a teacher’s complex relationship with and lasting influence on her students.
Could I use "Twenty-Four Eyes" for any of my classes? Probably not: I don’t see it fitting in with either my 4th and 5th grade studio art classes or my Upper School Art History courses. I would, however, recommend it to my Middle and Upper School History colleagues to see if the book would fit into their curriculum. But because my knowledge of Japanese history is very general, Tsuboi’s novel set me searching for things I knew nothing about: the Universal Suffrage Law of 1925 and the debates and conflicts that arose around the law, the different types of schooling for teachers in the first third of the 20th century, and how pacifism, nationalism and communism came into play in early 20th century Japan.
