[Sueyoshi Akiko] 末吉暁子 [Tongue-Cut Sparrow].したきりすずめ.

Illustrations by [Chō Shinta] 長新太.
Series はじめてのおはなし絵本, 12.

[Tokyo] 東京 , 講談社 , 1995.
8vo, 17, [1] pp.incl.wr., ill.

In original pictorial boards. Issued without title page.
Near very good condition, very light wear to corners and spine.

Most likely, the only edition with these illustrations.

A nice picture board book featuring a traditional Japanese fable about a kind old man, his greedy wife who harmed a magical sparrow, and her eventual punishment by yokai— supernatural entities and spirits from Japanese folklore.
The book was illustrated by Chō Shinta (1927–2005), a celebrated Japanese illustrator, manga artist, and children's author known as ‘The God of Nonsense’. He received numerous prizes both in Japan and internationally. In 1974, he was included in the IBBY Honour List, and he was the Japanese candidate for the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration in both 1998 and 2000.

We couldn’t trace any copies of this edition through OCLC or in Japanese libraries.