Tokyo Kodomo Club (東京こどもクラブ, Tōkyō Kodomo Kurabu), meaning Tokyo Children Club, is an early childhood education program published in Japan in an audio-visual format, distributed monthly on a record. The 7-inch record contained stories and songs, accompanied by a picture book that could be bound in a special folder. The early-childhood education program came in two courses: a 2-4 year old course and a 5-7 year old course. Each of the courses was designed to complete in 12 months. In addition on a quarterly basis, the Club sent out supplemental stories, songs and other music on a 12-inch record. The recitations on Side A were by "Uncle Maeda" (前田武彦, Takehiko Maeda), and on Side B, "Bin-chan" (楠トシエ, Toshie Kusunoki). The records were monaural recordings at 33-1/3 rpm. Presently, the recordings have gone out of print, making their procurement quite difficult.
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Programs
The programs were designed to familiarize children with stories and songs from around the world, with emphasis on European orchestral works. Main story narration often featured Classical music as a background music in order to help set the tone of the story. The bullets found in the index to each lesson were color-coded: red for the main story, blue for the songs and yellow for the occasional extra story. In the original course series, the main stories and songs were bulleted with a star and the extra stories with a circle. However, in later course series, they switched their bullets to red circles, blue squares and yellow triangles, keeping the same color code as before.
The Purple Flowers
The Purple Flowers: Mother who Fell Ill (むらさきのはな：びょうきになったおかあさん, Murasaki no Hana: Byōki ni natta O-kā-san)
Let's sing with Dad
Let's sing with Dad (おとさんとうたいましょう, O-tō-san to Utaimashō)
Uncle's Pastures
Uncle's Pastures (おじさんのまきばで, O-ji-san no Makiba)
Kodomo Concert Hall
The Kodomo Concert Hall series were recordings of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra.
Uncle Kōji's Story Bag
Uncle Kōji's Story Bag (コージおじさんのおはなしぶくろ, Kōji ojisan no Ohanashibukuro)
Sing in English Group
The Tokyo Kodomo Club issued two courses of children’s songs in English for the Japanese audience in the Sing in English Group (英語で歌う会, Ei-go de Utau Kai) series. These songs were sung by Esther Ghan and her children. The Let’s Sing English Songs (英語で歌いましょう, Ei-go de Utaimashō) course was designed similarly to their Japanese courses, where the lesson units were distributed monthly on a record. Each of the courses was designed to complete in 12 months, with the course set spanning two years. For the older children, Folk-album for All (みんなのフォーク・アルバム, Minna no Fōku-arubamu) in a set of six lesson units and a Christmas supplement were provided. It also spanned over two years.
Other
Contact information
Original Address:
15-5 Hachiyama-chō
Shibuya-ku, Tōkyō, Japan 〒150-0035
Current address:
12-4 Asahi-chō
Hachiōji-shi, Tōkyō, Japan 〒192-0083