Night on the Galactic Railroad

By Kenji Miyazawa 

Illustrated by Osamu Tsukasa 

Translated from the Japanese by Asa Yoneda and David Boyd 

On the eve of the Milky Way festival, Giovanni rushes past his classmates who are busy preparing for the celebration. He must get to his job at the printing office where he plucks tiny pieces of type with tweezers from a box, in exchange for a single silver coin. Later, he waits in a dusky kitchen that smells of cows for a bottle of milk to bring to his mother. Night has fallen when his classmates begin sailing gourds lit with candles down the black, glistening river. Giovanni wanders along a hillside. The dark blue sky begins to twinkle and shine. And suddenly, Giovanni finds himself transported to a compartment of the Galactic train. Across from him is his fellow classmate, the tender-hearted, enigmatic Campanella.

So begins an expedition traversing the galaxy. Campanella and Giovanni, etched in a black-and-white gothic style, travel through fields of purple flowers, into constellations. They meet the strangest people. There’s the lighthouse man, the bird catcher, and the shipwrecked children. Kenji Miyazawa’s story unravels its mysterious thread, in an exquisite translation by Asa Yoneda and David Boyd. Osamu Tsukasa’s illustrations combine the enigmatic beauty of Edvard Munch and Aubrey Beardsley’s art nouveau ink drawings––both of whom were inspired by Japanese woodblock prints. Miyazawa’s classic story will stay with readers long after childhood.