Ichiaku no suna (A Handful of Sand) (一握の砂)
"Ichiaku no suna" is the first collection of poetic works produced by Takuboku ISHIKAWA. The first edition was published by Shinonome-do Shoten on December 1, 1910. The preface of this book was written by a person named Mukuju YABUNO, which was actually the pen name of Genji SHIBUKAWA, a city news editr at Tokyo Asahi shinbun-Newspaper where Takuboku was working at that time.
His three-lined prose style applied to the traditional tanka form (a short Japanese poem of 31 syllables) got many followers especially among young generations. The influence of this book was significant especially in Iwate Prefecture where Takuboku came from, due to the publication of some pices from the book in a local newspaper prior to the actual release. Kenji MIYAZAWA was one of those who was inspired by this book, while Kenji was studying at the same school where Takugoku had studied, Moriok Secndary School (in pre-war system). It is considred that the work of Takuboku influenced Kenji, as he started creating his own tanka around the time the book was published.