Closer to Lovecraft than the Doctor Seuss: Miyazawa's tales

Further thoughts as to why Kenji Miyazawa's Once and Forever tales (NYRB press) from the 1920s-30s are a long way from Disney and Doctor Seuss, i.e., not meant for children: One of the tales is about three animals - a slug, a raccoon, and I forget the 3rd, maybe an insect of some sort? - who are in "school" together as youngsters and compete to be the best in the class - so much so that the raccoon even cheats on a test! Is this to be a cautionary tale, encouraging children to help one another rather than compete w/ one another, each of us is "special" in our own way, etc.? Of course not! We watch as the three of them enter adulthood and in each case the animal/insect imbibes something that leads to the complete disintegration of his body (the slug steps on salt, for example). Yech, yikes! Another story, The Red Blanket, is about a young boy who gets lost in a blizzard and gets completely buried in snow; some ghostlike form tells him to just relax, the snow will keep him warm. After the blizzard he wakes up and seems to be OK, but this would be a terrifying story for a child - aside from giving the child bad survival advice. And there are others - but the upshot is that every story here is unsettling and frightening - far closer to Lovecraft, but in a sly way because most begin with a seemingly benevolent and moralistic premise. I don't know if these stories/tales are really great, but they're really unusual and they give us a glimpse into the mind of a writer whose style and sensibility is sui generis.