Many people are familiar with the name Dan Dan Bunko ('bunko' is Japanese for a small library), the first International Children¡Çs Bunko for bilingual children co-founded by Mrs Opal Dunn, a specialist in child language development, in Tokyo in 1977. Since then Dan Dan Bunko, an English language Bunko, has acted as the model for other IC Bunko in Japan involving speakers of French, German and Korean as well as for groups of bilingual children world wide.

The Dan Dan Bunko model of a mini picture-book library, with related activities suitable for bilingual Japanese children living abroad, was quickly copied. Two years later, in 1979, The International Children¡Çs Bunko Association (ICBA) was created in Tokyo to help with the administration of the growing number of IC Bunko for speakers of different languages within Japan.

In 1983, when Mrs Dunn returned from living overseas, she opened the first Japanese language IC Bunko in London (Korisu Bunko). Two years later, together with Mrs Yoko Morishima, they founded ICBA London Branch, which several years later, due to the increasing number of IC Japanese language Bunko opening outside London, was renamed the ICBA UK Branch.

The International Children¡Çs Bunko Association is proud to have been running as a voluntary charity for over 30 years helping hundreds of young Japanese bilingual children to keep and develop the weaker of their two languages. To celebrate this milestone, the UK Branch decided to arrange a memorable event for children in their 22 UK Japanese Language Bunko featuring the DE-E-KU theatre group, well known for performances for children based on Rakugo, Rokyoku and Kodan. On October 10 at the 30th Anniversary Event, DE-E-KU will perform Momotaro, Jugemu and Sokotsu Magaya while Bunko children will perform some typical Bunko activities in Japanese for DE-E-KU.

DE-E-KU was founded in 2004 by Naoya Hayasaka, a member of the renowned Bungaku-za Theatre Company. Acting with him is Sen Yamamoto and two younger actors, Yuya Suzuki and Reiko Onishi. This is the first time for DE-E-KU to perform outside Japan.

DE-E-KU will give further free performances in Cambridge on October 3, Canterbury on October 7 and London on October 8 and 9.

http://kodomobunko.org.uk/index.php?lang=english