Original Japanese Artists
Japanese Child
Chihiro and her son, Takeshi.
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Chirhiro Iwasaki
Chihiro Iwasaki (いわさ ちひろ, 1918 - 1974) was a Japanese artist and illustrator best known for her water-color illustrations of flowers and children, whose theme was "the happiness of children and peace".
The majority of her illustrations were water-color pictures. Some of her work contained Japanese calligraphy and some were oil paintings. Her style was largely influenced by two of her favorite artists, Kenji Miyazawa and Hans Christian Andersen. In 1939, she married, but their relationship was always very distant. They moved to Dalian, Manchuria, but their marriage soon ended with her husband's suicide. In 1945, the Iwasaki family home in Tokyo was burned down in an air raid, and Iwasaki and her family moved to the home of her grandmother in Matsumoto, Nagano. In 1946, she wanted to be a illustrator, so she moved back to Tokyo. Later, she met a person who would stand by her in the future. In 1950, she married to him, he was a fellow communist. She had their only child, a son , in 1951, whom she frequently used as a model for her illustrations of babies and children for children's books and magazines. And she created many picture books and she won many children book's awards. In addition, she was the first person, who tried to acquire the copyright of her illustrations. Because of her effort, after that, many artist 's works still remaine, and we can appreciate and see the original works today. |
"I Can Do it All by Myself" (ひとりでできるよ, Hitori de Dekiru yo)
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Works"I Can Do it All by Myself" (ひとりでできるよ, Hitori de Dekiru yo)
In 1956, Iwasaki authored her first picture book, Hitori de Dekiru yo (I Can Do it All by Myself).That year, she received the Juvenile Culture Award of the Shogakukan Publishing Co. for her illustration works for children's books and magazines.
She had a point of view as a mother. She describes the boy very carefully, in the first of her children's books, as if the boy were her child, who was also a kindergartner. The boy can wash his teeth and face, and also can dry his hands by himself, so that the little child can take care of himself. |
"Staying home alone on a raining day."(1968) (あめの ひの おるすばん)
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"Staying home alone on a raining day."(1968) (あめの ひの おるすばん, Ame no Hi no Orusuban)
This is the first work of Chirhiro Iwasaki in which she describes a story through illustration and writing. She made a new method Nizimi-e painting. it uses plenty of water,and the water lets watercolors work freely, without outline. She had to work for a living as an artist, to support her family. This was because her husband could not get lots of money working as a lawyer for civilians, and she also had to bring up her little boy. And later she lived with the parents of her husband and she had to support and take care of them. Also her husband became a member of the House of Councilors so they were both very busy. She worked as hard as she could to create a new method for her paintings and drawings, and finally she made her own style. It is called "Nizimi-e". She made her best works during this time, until she made her last work "Children in the fires of the Vietnam War"(1973), she described the way that children were suffering, dying and surviving during the Vietnam war, for about 6 years, she made the best picture books. This book"Staying home alone on a raining day"is a story about a little girl is alone in her house and waiting for her mother. When a telephone is ringing, she is afraid of the sound,and hides behind a curtain. And she wants her mother come back, she is drawing lines on a window, and she is murmuring in her mind, "please come back mother". After her mother comes back, she really feels relieved and says,"Please ring again,because I could stay home alone". The readers of this picture book, can breathe a sigh of relief at the end of the story. A movie director Isao Takahata says, " She is an extraordinary writer, because she could understand children's hearts, they are independent people that have an inner world, and she let adults notice children's existence and their dignity. |
"Children in the Flames of War" (戦火のなかの子どもたち, Senka no Naka no Kodomo-tachi) , published in 1973, won the bronze medal of the Leipzig International Book Fair the following year. |
"Children in the Flames of War" (戦火のなかの子どもたち , Senka no Naka no Kodomotachi). Written by Chihiro Iwasaki(1973)
Chihiro Iwasaki describes children that were suffering, dying and surviving during the Vietnam war. She felt grief for Vietnamese children that were killed or lost their parents, and their families. This is the last painting of hers in this picture book and it is also the last work in her life. Although she was staying bed in a hospital and suffering and dying, she was always yearning for Vietnamese children's safty and the end of the war and peace for the country and the world. This painting is really impressive that a comparison of the description of the mother, who protects her child desperately in the fires of war, and the child who feels safe, angelic by being held her mother. |
Japanese Nature
Chikabo Kumada
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Chikabo Kumada (熊田千佳慕 1911 - 2009) was born in Yokohama( 横浜, Kanagawa prefecture ) in 1911. He was on track to become a graphic designer at age 26, and he decided he'd rather work on children's books after the Second World War. "I love children," he says. "That’s why I started doing it. That was where my years of impoverishment began." He was a pioneer of botanical art. It is 'plant art'. He had made countless book illustrations and picture books about the subject. For about 70 years, he had been drawing the insects, animals, and plants that lived in his garden and neighbouring woodlands. He says, " I had wanted to be an artist so I can understand the language of flowers and insects.". “I am the insect, the insect is me. Nature exists for me, and I exist for nature. Now I am getting to realize this about me that I am an existence in nature. " He had always observed this world through the eyes of insects. "Nature is not beautiful because it is beautiful, it is beautiful because we love nature. " He worked hard painting pieces of botanical art. He drew not only plants but also drew insects. He was drawing art until he was ninety-eight years old. When he observed nature carefully , it was as if he always fell down on the ground, everybody was worried about him, "what's wrong?" they would say. (See photo left) His detailed paintings of bees, moths, beetles and caterpillars, are beautiful, intense, and look as if they were painted from a bug's-eye view. |
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First,he was a graphic designer, he finished a work of 'Fabre insects books ', five volumes of books. Since he began to work on his art, he said " my eyes are getting better to observe and draw insects and nature." This is the theme of his life work since he was seventy-years old. He was often called the "Japanese Fabre" or even "Petit Fabre". He was called that because Jean Henri Fabre was a French entomologist (insect scientist) who lived from the early nineteenth century until the early twentieth century. He won a prize twice at Bologna international art exhibition in Italy. It is very famous international children's books exhibition. Later, he gains many Japanese awards. |