The Many Lives of Chio and Goro is an original tale in which I have a farm couple pass through a series of animal reincarnations before being reunited again.
Chio, the wife, has a very bad memory, so when she and her husband decide to be reunited in their next life as a fox, she absentmindedly becomes a chicken.
The comedy begins when Goro’s fox mother trains him to raid the chicken coop and continues as the couple recycle until they are reunited in human form.
A reviewer said that this tale can be appreciated on many levels. I understood this when a mother told me that she valued my book as a way of helping children deal with death. The droll humor of illustrator, Yasuo Segawa, catches the poetic, yet fantastic mood of the story.
One night
While Chio and Goro lay on their mats
on the floor,
they talked about what they would be
in their next life,
for they knew that their time in this world
was almost spent.
“In my next life,”
said Goro,
“I will be a fox,
for the fox is a shrewd animal
and gets his food faster
than the farmer who bends
over the field all day.”
“Then I will also be a fox
in my next life,”
said Chio.
“And I will be clever as a fox
and never forget anything.”