My Father’s Dragon

Sayuri meets her dragon!

 When I read this fabulous story for the first time, I was an elementary school student.  I fell in love with this lovely front cover picture at first sight, and as soon as I started reading it I was so much into it I had to read it all the way through, again and again for ages.  Over the year though, I forgot about until I saw an advertisement about an exhibition for the original illustrations of this book at PLAY! Museum in Tachikawa.  “I have to go there!”

Tachikawa is a well-planned, beautiful city with the Museum just a 10 minute walk from the railway station.  We arrived a little earlier than the opening time, but the smiley staff welcomed us and let us wait in the cool foyer.  At reception we got a sticker and lovely paper-craft pictures of dragons as souvenirs.  The receptionist told us we could re-enter the Museum anytime that day, using the sticker.  We were even allowed to take photos inside.

My first photo had to be with the beautiful Boris the Dragon at the entrance!  He was so lovely, just as I had imagined.  I was over the moon - I felt like my lifelong dream to see the Dragon had came true!!

As well as the original pictures, the exhibition room was full of black and white animals made me feel as though I was on ‘Wild Island’ with Elmer Elevator, the main character.  The original pictures were drawn into so much with pencils and their captions were put with which were shaped like twigs, lollipops, chewing gum, bird feathers, which were iconic items in the story.

There were also crocodiles lined-up like stepping stones which Elmer had used as a bridge in the story.  In the display the crocodiles groaned when we stepped on them, which was so much fun.

The Museum shop was really exciting too.  There were so many lovely items like T-shirts, postcards, books, posters, socks, lollipops, water-dorm, etc, etc…paradise!  I bought books, T-shirts and other trinkets! Shopping done, we went to the Museum cafe and enjoyed interesting dishes inspired by the exhibition.

‘My Father’s Dragon’ and the subsequent Ruth Stiles Garnett stories, ‘Elmer and the Dragon’ and ‘The Dragons of Blueland’ were written in 1944, being translated into Japanese and published in 1963.  I had only ever read them in Japanese before, but now I’ve got an original English version which I’m looking forward to reading and seeing the Dragon I love.