Night On The Galactic Railroad Of Miyazawa Kenji

Miyazawa Kenji,a Japanese famous fairy tales writer,poet,a religionist as well as an agricultural researcher.It is multiple identities and various experiences that make Miyazawa Kenji's literatures have special charm.Especially his religious faith for Nichiren Buddhism and the Mahayana Buddhism's classics—Lotus Sutra,which prompts he blended religion in his literary creation.His literatures were called as Literature of Lotus Sutra,too.Meanwhile,the practical sense of Paradise on Earth in Nichiren Buddhism and Lotus Sutra make Miyazawa Kenji tried to realize his ideal by the affairs about agriculture in real life.Night on the Galactic Railroad is as one of the most important fairy tales of Miyazawa Kenji,whose altruistic self-sacrifice,the equal thought that everyone can be a Buddha and acknowledgement of Paradise on Earth are reflected throughout the article.All of these three ideologies are the main concepts of Lotus Sutra.It takes general 8 years that Kenji created Night on the Galactic Railroad.And as revised manuscripts were various,so it means that the book's content and construction were revised greatly.What's more,in this long creation time,Kenji went through the death of his sister,the resignation and the creation and abolishment of Rasu Chijin Tetsudo Kyokai association and so on.All of these personal experiences leads Kenji's concepts about Lotus Sutra have been developed continuously while he was writing this book.In the initial-form of Night on the Galactic Railroad,the protagonist Giovanni is a gloomy boy who is always eager for gold coins and envious of his classmate Campanella.After helping doctor finish the Milky Way's experiment,Giovanni gained two gold coins.However,in the final-form of this book,Kenji converted Giovanni into a self-reliant migrant labor who can make silver coins by himself.In addition,Kenji also removed the plots about doctor and giving Giovanni gold coins.As the writer rewrote ‘the granting of god' into ‘self-reliance' in the methods of making money,we can find that Kenji's desire of ‘other-power ' was decreasing.Besides,with rewriting Giovanni's annoyance about lust of gold coins into his happiness of hard working,the protagonist's mental development expresses the Kenji's admission of the concept in a way that current situation can be changed by practice.On the other hand,in the initial-form of this book,the roles ‘doctor ' and ‘mysterious voice' imply ‘deities',and Giovanni is ‘the lucky guy chosen by deity'.As the ‘doctor ' roles were cancelled,which makes Giovanni has lost his ‘aura of fate' and become the ordinary person.This rewriting of Kenji endows the right and ability for everyone in the world that longs to find real happiness.It suggests that Kenji has admitted and developed the concept in the Lotus Sutra that everyone can be a Buddha.