Part of the Kodansha Bilingual Children's Classics series, which presents traditional Japanese folktales in both English and Japanese - other titles in the set include The Moon Princess, Urashima and the Kingdom Beneath the Sea, The Adventure of Momotaro, the Peach Boy, and Kintaro, the Nature Boy - this story of a tiny, inch-high boy, born to a couple who have long desired a child, who sets out for the capital city to seek his fortune, becoming a mighty samurai and winning the hand of a beautiful princess, despite his small stature, is here retold in rhyming verse by Ralph F. McCarthy, together with the illustrations of Shiro Kasamatsu.

The result is a delightful little picture-book that children will enjoy reading, while poring over the detailed, colorful artwork. I think that, of all the illustrators involved in this series - Kancho Oda, Ioe Saito, Shiro Kasamatsu, and Suiho Yonai - I have enjoyed the work of Kasamatsu, who worked on both The Inch-High Samurai and Urashima and the Kingdom Beneath the Sea, best. His palette is lovely, and his figures expressive, within the confines of this particular style. All in all, a sweet little retelling of a wonderful tale from Japan, one I would recommend to any young reader with an interest in folklore or fairy-tales. ( )