It is based on a short story of the same name by Kenji Miyazawa.This was a personal film for director Oga, as he cited how he was inspired after reading a collection of Miyazawa's works after working on Princess Mononoke (1997). A special screening was held from February 2 to 7, 2010 during A Ghibli Artisan - Kazuo Oga Exhibition - The One Who Painted Totoro's Forest at the Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art.
is a short anime film directed by Kazuo Oga and released by Studio Ghibli. A DVD version was released for Japan on July 7, 2006.