Picture Books of Japanese and African Stories

Different Art Mediums Give New Look to Classic Tales

Sep 7, 2009

Find amazing eagle and tsunami pictures in these books by Caldecott winner Ed Young and author Kimiko Kajikawa that retell an African fable and true Japanese story

In the hands of skilled artists, even familiar folk tales can take on new and exciting looks. But when the stories being retold come from tales not well-known among certain cultures, readers are in for a double treat as they get to experience these classic tales for the first time through very dynamic artwork.

Here then are two recent picture books illustrated by Caldecott winner Ed Young, who uses different art mediums to re-imagine a famous Japanese true story and celebrated African fable.

Japanese-American author Kimiko Kajikawa teams up with Chinese artist Ed Young to create Tsunami!, a Japanese story about one man’s struggle to save his village from a monster tidal wave.

In a Japanese village overlooking the sea, a wealthy farmer called Ojisan (Japanese for “grandfather”) watches the village’s annual rice harvest celebration from his mountain home. But when a strange earthquake rocks the village, Ojisan is horrified to see the underwater quake has caused the sea to move away from the beach in preparation for a tsunami – a monster wave capable of obliterating the entire village.

As the villagers fail to notice the danger – and start moving closer to the beach to watch the sea – Ojisan burns his own rice fields to alert the villagers to climb up to his mountain home, sacrificing his own wealth to save four hundred lives.

One of the most remarkable short Japanese stories, Tsunami! is adapted from British writer Lafcadio Hearn’s tale “A Living God” (Gleanings in Buddha-Fields, 1897), which told the true story of Hamaguchi Goryou, who not only saved his home village of Hiro-mura from a tsunami by lighting rice sheaves, but also spearheaded the recovery that followed.

While Kajikawa does a fine job in re-telling this Japanese story, the art by Ed Young really steals the show. Young, who adopts a different art medium for each of his picture books, uses impressionistic collages for this project – employing rice paper, fabric, grass cloth, cardboard, and tissues to create the village and tsunami pictures. It’s very effective – particularly in a double-page spread that shows the tsunami towering over the village.

According Kajikawa’s website, Tsunami! took ten years to publish, partly because publishers were not interested in the story until events such as Hurricane Katrina and the 2004 Christmas Day Tsunami made the book seem more relevant. As such, the story functions not only as a portrait of sacrifice, but also as a cautionary tale of such calamities.

Ed Young returns with a new picture book in Hook, which retells an African fable famously attributed to missionary and teacher Dr. James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey (Aggrey of Africa), who used the tale to encourage the African people not to submit to the lowly labels imposed on them by their oppressors but to reclaim their true, powerful identities.

When a young boy finds an abandoned egg carrying a hook-nosed eaglet, he takes it to a hen who adopts it as her own. As the mother hen realizes “Hook” is not meant to live among the chickens, both she and the boy encourage the eaglet to fly and – after several false starts – help him reclaim his place in the sky.

One of the most popular African fables among storytellers, this story has been re-imagined many times (in some versions a farmer finds the eaglet, in others a naturalist helps the eaglet fly). This version is notable for Young’s pastel drawings that ranges from detailed depictions of Hook playing with the chickens to abstract pictures of his attempts to fly – ending with an amazing picture of an eagle soaring through the sky.

The story’s prose, however, is very sparse and often limited to a single sentence per page. Some may enjoy this minimalist approach – which places the focus on the art – while others will be disappointed that there isn’t more to read.

It should also be noted that while some storytellers emphasize the humor of the eaglet’s attempts to be a chicken, Young concentrates more on Hook’s attempts to be an eagle. This harkens back to Aggrey’s themes of reclaiming identity and fulfilling one’s potential, although it does tone down the comedy younger readers enjoy.

Those interested in reading other African fables that come from similar stories will want to check out The Eagle That Would Not Fly by Dr. James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey and Fly, Eagle, Fly! by Christopher Gregorowski.

Aggrey, J.E.K. The Eagle That Would Not Fly. London: Magi Publications. 1988. ISBN: 978-1870271912

Gregorowski, Christopher. Fly, Eagle, Fly: An African Tale. New York: Aladdin. 2008. ISBN: 978-1416975991

The copyright of the article Picture Books of Japanese and African Stories in Picture Books is owned by Michael Jung. Permission to republish Picture Books of Japanese and African Stories in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.