“Nihon No Kodomo for Young Pianists” is a piano music collection for children, which was composed between 1977 and 1979. It uses several traditional musics, such as Japanese traditional children’s songs, folk songs, and ethnic music from Finland and Africa, as material. The 90 songs, announced in the monthly magazine “Humming”, were gathered in two volumes in order of difficulty. Especially in Volume two, there are many good works to practice upper level skills that have frequent temporary signs and beat changes. This collection has eight works of duets.

In the music score, at first, traditional music used as material is shown in the melody with words. After that, variations based on the traditional music continue being referred to as ‘Sketch’. There are various types of ‘sketches’ such as melodically decorated ones and harmonically decorated ones, but the most common arrangement is a polyphonic decoration.

Each song has an explanation including pitch and tonality by the composer, and it becomes a great hint of phrasing and intonation in actually playing. This collection is said to be a unique piano textbook, using familiar music to children’s lives, such as traditional children’s songs and folk songs.