The Picture Book Tebukuro’s Original Title Was Rukavychka — and Its Roots in a Ukrainian Folktale

An old man drops one of his mittens in a snowy forest. A mouse moves in, and then a frog, a rabbit, and a fox arrive one after another, each asking to be let in, until finally even a large bear climbs inside. Fukuinkan Shoten’s picture book てぶくろ (Tebukuro, “The Mitten”) carries the words “Ukrainian folktale” (ウクライナ民話) on its cover and in its title.

According to Fukuinkan Shoten’s product page, the first edition was published on November 1, 1965. It is part of the “World’s Masterpiece Picture Books” series, 16 pages, 28 by 23 centimeters. The illustrations are by Yevgenii M. Rachev, and the Japanese translation is by Uchida Risako. The same page notes that the book falls into the category of “books that have gone through more than 100 printings,” and states that it has been adopted in first-grade Japanese-language textbooks published by Mitsumura Tosho and Kyoiku Shuppan (Reiwa 6 edition) and in a second-grade textbook published by Gakko Tosho (Reiwa 2 edition). In its announcement for a 2026 exhibition, the Chihiro Art Museum states that domestic print runs have exceeded 3.3 million copies.

This single book carries the names of three countries layered on top of one another. The folktale is Ukrainian. The picture book itself was made in the Soviet Union. And in the catalogs of Japanese libraries, the series name “Russian Picture Books” also appears. This article traces where each of these comes from, using bibliographic records and museum materials.

The Original Title Was “Rukavychka”

Looking at the record for the large-format edition published by Fukuinkan Shoten in January 2020 (part of the “Masterpiece Picture Book Theater” series, 48 centimeters) in the catalog of the National Diet Library (NDL), the general notes state “an enlarged edition of the 1965 publication” and “original title: Rukavichka.” The same record lists the language of the original text as Ukrainian (ukr).

“Rukavichka” is the Latin-alphabet rendering of the Cyrillic Рукавичка, spelled the same way in both Ukrainian and Russian, meaning “mitten.” Read as Ukrainian, this is pronounced “Rukavychka.” The Japanese title てぶくろ is thus a direct translation of the original title.

The NDL’s record of the first edition, from 1965 (Showa 40), likewise gives the title as てぶくろ：ウクライナ民話 (“Tebukuro: A Ukrainian Folktale”). From the time of its Japanese publication, this edition introduced the story as a Ukrainian folktale.

The 1956 Edition, テブクロ

There is also an edition published nine years earlier than Fukuinkan Shoten’s. NDL Search has a record for テブクロ：ウクライナのおとぎばなし (“Tebukuro: A Ukrainian Fairy Tale”), published by Nauka in Tokyo in June 1956, with illustrations by Yevgenii M. Rachev, translated by Azuma Kazuo, 16 pages, 29 centimeters. The series name was “Soviet Children’s and Youth Literature Library.”

This record shows that the same story with Rachev’s illustrations had already been published in Japanese before Fukuinkan Shoten’s edition, and that it was already described as “Ukrainian” at that point. How the text and translation of the 1956 edition differ from the 1965 edition was not confirmed for this article.

The Picture Book Was Made in the Soviet Union

Even though the folktale is Ukrainian, the picture book itself was made in the Soviet Union. In its announcement for the exhibition “Rachev at 120: The Illustrator of The Mitten and the World of Folktale Picture Books,” held from March 1 to May 10, 2026, the Chihiro Art Museum (Tokyo) states that the picture book was first published in Russian in 1951 to great acclaim and was subsequently translated into many languages. The original artwork the museum exhibited is dated to 1950.

The NDL’s record for the 1965 edition includes a summary provided by the Japan Library Association describing it as “a Soviet picture-book masterpiece depicting a mitten and small animals of the forest.” The records for the 1997 Braille edition and the 2020 large-format edition both include “Russian Picture Books” in the series name, appearing alongside “Ukrainian folktale” in the title within the same record.

In other words, the labeling has layers. The story’s origin is a Ukrainian folktale. The picture book was made in the Soviet Union, and, according to the Chihiro Art Museum, the first book was in Russian. The series name that appears in Japanese library records is “Russian Picture Books.” Rather than any one of these being wrong, each refers to something different.

The sources do not agree, however, on the language of the original text. The NDL’s record for the 2020 edition gives Ukrainian, while the Chihiro Art Museum describes the first, 1951 publication as being in Russian. Which language’s book the Japanese translation was made from could not be confirmed for this article.

The Illustrator Rachev Began Drawing in Kyiv

The NDL’s authority record gives the illustrator as Rachev, Evgenii (1906–1997). According to the Chihiro Art Museum’s profile, Rachev was born in Tomsk, Russia, in 1906 and spent his childhood in Siberia. He graduated from the Kuban Art Pedagogical School in 1928, and the following year, 1929, at age 23, began drawing illustrations at a publishing house in Kyiv. In 1936 he was invited to move to the Children’s Literature Publishing House in Moscow, and after serving in the Second World War, he went on to produce one folktale picture book after another.

The author profile Fukuinkan Shoten publishes as part of its book information (reproduced in NDL Search) states that, after studying at an art institute in Kyiv, he joined the Kyiv publishing house “Kultura” in 1930. Sources thus differ on the year he began working in Kyiv, giving either 1929 or 1930.

A hallmark of Rachev’s illustrations is clothed animals. According to the Chihiro Art Museum, clothed animals first appeared in a folktale collection published in 1947. Rachev, who believed the animals in folktales reflect human relationships and personalities, came up with the idea of dressing the animals in national costume. The editorial staff objected, and it took seven months of deliberation before publication was decided. From then on, Rachev illustrated animal folktales from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Siberia’s minority peoples, among others.

The museum also notes that Matsui Tadashi, a Fukuinkan Shoten editor, once cited the book’s detailed, realistic illustrations as part of its appeal. Each time another animal squeezes in, the mitten swells, gains windows and a chimney, and its seams start to come undone; this attention to detail, in the museum’s assessment, is what gives the picture book the reality that children accept as real.

The Translator, and How the Book Has Been Read Since 2022

The NDL’s authority record gives the translator, Uchida Risako, as having lived from 1928 to 1997. Rachev also died in that same year, 1997.

The Chihiro Art Museum writes that, since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, this picture book has drawn renewed attention, both as a book that makes the country of Ukraine feel close, and as a story about animals of different natures living together. According to the museum, it is the only museum outside Russia to hold a substantial collection of Rachev’s work, and its 2026 exhibition displayed six original artworks for Tebukuro, along with one final scene that was not included in the published book.

The word “Ukraine” has appeared in the title of this picture book, read in Japan for more than 60 years, since its 1956 edition. Pointers on reading Ukrainian literature in Japanese are also introduced in Where to Start With Ukrainian Literature.