Kenji Miyazawa’s Restaurant of Many Orders and Other Stories: The Manga Edition

＂In the transcendent stories of Miyazawa, Earth teems with magic and wonder.＂ --Publishers Weekly

＂A marvelous writer who deserves to be much better known in English.＂ --Kirkus

This charming manga collection presents three modern fables by one of Japan’s most gifted authors, the poet and short story writer Kenji Miyazawa.

Miyazawa is renowned for his masterful storytelling, poetic imagery and powerful evocation of both the shadows and light of human nature. His world of sentient stars and enchanted forests, presented here in manga form, will appeal to imaginative readers of all ages.

• The Restaurant of Many Orders follows a pair of confident, self-centered young men on a hunting expedition. After entering a mysterious restaurant deep in the forest the men are given a series of increasingly peculiar orders before they can be served dinner. What begins with simple orders, like removing their coats and brushing their hair, become stranger and stranger before the two men realize that something more cynical is at bay...


• The Wildcat and the Acorns is the story of a young boy invited to attend a trial where a wildcat presides over golden acorns disputing which acorn is the best one.


• The Twin Stars brings to life the heavenly constellations, whose musical performances keep the stars twinkling at night. In the daytime, however, the harmony falls apart as the constellations squabble among themselves.

Kenji Miyazawa was born into a wealthy family in northern Japan in 1896 and grew up questioning the class disparities of his time and place. He became a devout Buddhist and teacher of poor farmers, writing many poems and children’s stories that depict the interconnectedness of nature in a fantasy-world setting. He published few books before his death at the age of 37 but achieved wide acclaim posthumously, including for the widely-adapted novella Night on the Galactic Railroad. His poem ＂Strong in the Rain＂ became an anthem of survival following the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in northern Japan. He now features as a character in the hugely popular Bungo Stray Dogs manga and anime TV series.

Yasuko Sakuno is a manga artist in Kyoto. She is the author of the series The Conditions for Being a Princess, the cat essay collection I Get Along Without You Very Well, the office romance Why Me? and other comics.