Spring and Chaos

Spring and Chaos
Spring and Chaos (North American DVD 2001)
イーハトーブ幻想 Kenjiの春 (Ihatov Gensou: Kenji no Haru)
Genre	Fantasy
Anime television film
Directed by	Shōji Kawamori
Produced by	Hidekazu Satō
Written by	Shōji Kawamori
Music by	Shang Shang Typhoon
Studio	Group TAC
Original network	NNS
Released	December 14, 1996
Runtime	56 minutes

Spring and Chaos (イーハトーブ幻想 Kenjiの春^?, Īhatōbu Gensō Kenji no Haru, lit, Ihatov Fantasy: Kenji's Spring) is a 1996 Japanese anime television special inspired by the life of poet Kenji Miyazawa, released in Japan to mark the 100th anniversary of Miyazawa's birth. It was directed by Shoji Kawamori. It was released in North America by Tokyopop. Miyazawa and the other characters in the program are depicted as cats, similar to the anime adaptation of Miyazawa's story Night on the Galactic Railroad.

The North American title Spring and Chaos derives from the title of Miyazawa's poetry collection Spring and Asura (Haru to Shura), the title poem of which is recited in part in the program. The "Ihatov" in the Japanese title is a setting in a number of Miyazawa's works; it is the word Miyazawa created in Esperanto for his place of residence, Japan's Iwate Prefecture.

The story follows Kenji Miyazawa through different periods of his life, centering primarily on his relationships with his sister, his father, his students, and the farmers in his area. The film opens with a sequence of Kenji carrying snow in his hands and chasing after a moving train containing his sister Toshi. Suddenly the ground splits and the train descends into the sea, as Kenji sinks to his knees and calls his sister’s name. In the real world, Kenji’s students sit in their classroom and gossip about the strangeness of their teacher. Kenji enters through the window and proceeds to tell the students to shut their books and close their eyes, explaining principles of heat and temperature to them. Then he leads his students on an outdoor excursion, demonstrating the eccentric teaching style that Miyazawa was known for.

Six years earlier, Kenji walks through natural landscapes with his friend, Kanai Hosaka. Looking at two telegraph poles, he gets the inspiration for his poem Telegraph Poles on a Moonlit Night. He talks about his dreams for the future with Kanai on a mountaintop while gazing at a beautiful field of stars. Upon returning home with an armful of rocks he has collected, he witnesses his father at work at the family pawnshop business, in the middle of insisting that he cannot give a poor farmer any more money for his goods. Kenji later argues with his father about the business, decrying the practice of profiting off the poor. However, he is cheered by his sister Toshi; he asks her if she has read his poem in Azalea, a reference to the magazine that Miyazawa started with his friends. Toshi starts to cough violently and Kenji rushes to her aid.