With fine weather, strolling the streets feels good. A five-minute walk from Palaceside Building brought me to the special exhibition "Picture Books: Japan's Festivals, Festivals of the World" at Chiyoda Ward Library (Kudanminami 1-2-1, Chiyoda-ku, 9th floor of the ward office).
April 23 is "Children's Reading Day" and also "World Book Day," and this event marks the occasion.
Why this date? Because it is "Sant Jordi Day." Originally a Catalan custom in Spain: honoring Saint George, women give men books and men give women red roses. It is also the anniversary of Cervantes, author of "Don Quixote," and in Spain it is "Book Day"; UNESCO's General Conference in 1995 established it as「World Book Day」 (Shakespeare's death anniversary is the same day).
In Japan, library professionals declared 2000 "Year of Children's Reading," leading to bipartisan legislation in December 2001 — the Act on Promotion of Children's Reading Activities — whose Article 10 designates April 23 as "Children's Reading Day," quite official. (Though on the MEXT website, a 2012 forum still listed as "new" is a bit disappointing.)
Setting that aside — the "Picture Books..." display. About 30 picture books on traditional Japanese festivals and festivals and customs worldwide are on view. Japanese examples include "Why Tenjin Matsuri?" (Shochiku), "Picture Book Nebuta" (Abe), "Fukkoto Tondoyaki" (Inui), "Swim Energetically, Koi Nobori" (Imaseki), and others＝photos lower left. World festivals include "Festivals of the World" (Kindersley) and "Greetings of the World" (Choshin) and others＝photos lower right.
As a commemorative event, on Saturday the 27th at 2 p.m. (doors 1:30), about one hour on the 1st-floor community hall: the 5th "Festival of Words and Sound," with taiko by children from a kindergarten near Kanda Myojin and picture-book readings.
No adult wishes children would not read books. On this special day, I think I'll buy one volume to take home.