Why Is Anne of Green Gables So Loved in Japan? The Orphan Who Arrived Instead of a Boy

Anne of Green Gables (1908) follows an orphan sent in error to a farm on Prince Edward Island. Why it sold 50 million copies and became a Japanese icon.

Anne of Green Gables is popular because it turns a simple mistake into a story about belonging: an eleven-year-old orphan, Anne Shirley, is sent by error to Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, who wanted a boy to help on their farm, and she talks, dreams and blunders her way into their hearts. Published in 1908, the novel has sold more than 50 million copies and has been translated into at least 36 languages. In Japan, where it is known as "Red-haired Anne", it has been part of school life for generations and became a genuine national icon.

Born from a note in a girl's notebook

Lucy Maud Montgomery built the story from notes she had made as a young girl about two siblings who asked for an orphan boy, were sent a girl instead, and decided to keep her. For Anne's face she used a photograph of Evelyn Nesbit cut out of Metropolitan Magazine.

Orphan stories were a popular formula at the time, and many of their heroines were called Ann. Montgomery set hers apart with one letter: this heroine insists on being "Anne with an e".

The author who knew loneliness

Montgomery was born on 30 November 1874 in New London, Prince Edward Island. Her mother died of tuberculosis when she was about 21 months old, and she was raised by her maternal grandparents in Cavendish. She trained as a teacher, studied literature at Dalhousie University, taught in island schools and, in 1901–1902, worked in Halifax as a proofreader for newspapers.

A child raised by grandparents in a rural community, full of imagination and not always understood: it is easy to see where some of Anne's feelings came from.

1908: a quick success, a bad review

The book was published on 13 June 1908 by L. C. Page & Co. of Boston and sold more than 19,000 copies in its first five months. Not everyone was charmed. The New York Times Book Review gave it a harsh review in 1908, and in 1996 the paper admitted that it "may have slipped up badly".

Carrots, a slate and green hair

Much of the novel's fame comes from Anne's disasters. When Gilbert Blythe teases her about her red hair by calling her "Carrots", she breaks a slate over his head. She makes Diana Barry, her "bosom friend", drunk by accidentally serving currant wine instead of raspberry cordial, and she tries to dye her hair black but turns it green.

Readers laugh at these scenes, but each one is also about wanting to be accepted. Anne's red hair is the thing she hates most about herself, and the green-hair episode is a child's desperate attempt to become someone else.

Growing up, and a hard choice

At sixteen Anne goes to Queen's Academy, completes the two-year teaching licence in one year and wins the Avery Scholarship for university. Then a bank failure takes the Cuthberts' savings, and Matthew dies of a heart attack. Anne gives up the scholarship to stay with Marilla, and Gilbert gives up his teaching post in Avonlea so that Anne can have it; their long rivalry becomes friendship.

The scholar Faye Hammill points out that the book deals with loss, rejection, cruel authority figures and loneliness, not only cheerfulness. That mix of sorrow and hope is part of why adults return to it.

Eight more books

Montgomery wrote eight more Anne books, including Anne of Avonlea (1909), Anne of the Island (1915) and Anne's House of Dreams (1917); Rainbow Valley and Rilla of Ingleside turn to Anne's children. In all she published 20 novels.

Her own later life was harder than her heroine's. In 1911 she married Ewen Macdonald, a Presbyterian minister, and moved to Ontario; she suffered recurring depression, worsened by her husband's mental illness and by the First World War. She died in Toronto on 24 April 1942 and was buried in Cavendish.

Red-haired Anne in Japan

In Japan the novel is called Akage no An, "Red-haired Anne", and it has been part of the national school curriculum since 1952. The 1979 anime series of the same name made Anne an icon there. Japanese couples hold weddings at the Green Gables farm on Prince Edward Island, and there is even a replica of the house in Ashibetsu, Hokkaido.

Why Japan? One can only guess: perhaps Anne's love of nature and seasons, her deep friendships or her habit of naming places poetically. Those are interpretations rather than facts, but the long presence of the book in schools and the 1979 anime clearly gave it an unusually wide audience.

Screens, stages and a farmhouse

The Green Gables farmhouse in Cavendish draws visitors, and Prince Edward Island licence plates once carried Anne's image. On screen, the 1985 CBC miniseries starring Megan Follows is widely considered the definitive version, while Anne with an E (2017–2019) explored the trauma in Anne's past. Anne of Green Gables: The Musical has been staged at the Charlottetown Festival since 1965.

Learn with Anne: English expressions

Expression	Meaning	Example
a kindred spirit	someone who thinks and feels like you	Diana was Anne's kindred spirit.
a bosom friend	a very close friend (old-fashioned)	She is my bosom friend.
scope for the imagination	room to imagine and dream	This old house has so much scope for the imagination.
to lose your temper	to suddenly become angry	Anne lost her temper with Gilbert.
tomorrow is a new day	you can start again tomorrow	Don't worry, tomorrow is a new day.

Try this: Anne loves giving places new names. Choose three ordinary places you pass every day and give each a poetic English name, then write one sentence explaining each name using "scope for the imagination" or "kindred spirit".