Yellow Pumpkin in the Mishinotakukanito’s Child Story

Retnani

(Faculty of Language and Arts, State University of Surabaya, Indonesia)

Abstract: This study aims (1) to reveal the Japanese philosophy of “Yellow Pumpkin” and (2) to actualize Japanese cultural content of “Yellow Pumpkin” in the Japanese child story Mishinotakukanito by Matsuoka Kyoko. This is a qualitative study focusing on the relevance of interpreting of a socio cultural phenomenon in the Japanese child story Mishinotakukanito linguistically by analyzing the illocutionary act of “Yellow Pumpkin” to reveal the philosophy through “Religion” theory and to explore the cultural content of Japanese child story Mishinotakukanito through “Cultural Reference” theory. The result of this study showed (1) the presence of early teaching of Japanese philosophy of “simplicity and obedience”, (2) the actualization of cultural content of “Perseverance” and “Pursuit of Knowledge”.

Key words: illocutionary act, Mishinotakukanito’s child story, Yellow Pumpkin