100th Anniversary of Chihiro Iwasaki’s Birth: Japanese Fairy Tales

I think the cost of steady economic growth has been the gradual loss of spiritual enrichment. I hope people will soon realize this and deeply consider what this richness means. I am thinking about depicting in my picture books the various forms of kindness and beauty that Japan has lost. Presenting this to children is what gives meaning to my life.

— Chihiro Iwasaki, 1972

Chihiro Iwasaki created many illustrations based on Japanese fairy tales and literature. Those set in Japan express an emotional richness, a result of the artist’s intimate familiarity with the climate, the quality of the light, the feel of the wind. The subtle demeanor of the subjects wearing kimono in the works convey their personalities and their emotions, while the generous use of water in the application of the watercolors produces a blurring effect that almost enables the viewer to feel the humidity in the air and the texture of the snow. In this exhibition, we showcase piezographic artwork from picture books based on such Japanese tales as Tsuru no Ongaeshi (The Crane’s Reward) by Miyoko Matsutani, an interpretation of the Japanese “crane wife” folktale; Onita no Boshi (Onita’s Hat) by Kimiko Aman, which depicts the friendship between a child demon and a young girl on the night of the Japanese Setsubun holiday marking the end of winter; and Akai Rosoku to Ningyo (The Red Candles and the Mermaid) by Mimei Ogawa, Chihiro’s unfinished posthumous work.

*Piezography is a modern print technology used by the Chihiro Art Museum to digitally archive and create high-quality reproductions, called piezographic artwork, as a means of preserving the colors and textures of Chihiro’s artwork in its current state. Enabling highly detailed image representation using light-fast micro ink-dots, the technology greatly enhances the reproducibility of subtle watercolor paintings while also making possible the viewing of works under bright lighting.