was a Japanese artist and

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicate ...

best known for her water-colored illustrations of flowers and children, the theme of which was "peace and happiness for children".

Life

Chihiro Iwasaki was born the first daughter of Masakatsu and Fumie Iwasaki on 15 December 1918, in

Takefu is a city located in Fukui Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 83,078 in 20,341 households and a population density of 360 persons per km². The total area of the city was . The modern city of Echizen was establishe ...

(now Echizen),

Fukui Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Fukui Prefecture has a population of 737,229 (1 January 2025) and has a geographic area of 4,190 Square kilometre, km2 (1,617 sq mi). Fukui Prefecture border ...

, Japan. The following year, her family moved to Tokyo, where they lived until 1945. As a little girl, Chihiro loved to draw pictures. When she was fourteen years old, she began to learn drawing and oil painting under Saburōsuke Okada, an artist and professor of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts (later

Tokyo University of the Arts or is a school of art and music in Japan. Located in Ueno Park, it also has facilities in Toride, Ibaraki, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Kitasenju and Adachi, Tokyo. The university has trained artists in the fields of painting, sculpture, crafts, inter ...

). In 1936, Iwasaki graduated from high school, and the next year, at the age of eighteen, she began to learn how to draw Japanese calligraphy with

inkstick Inksticks () or ink cakes are a type of solid Chinese ink used traditionally in several Chinese and East Asian art forms such as calligraphy and brush painting. Inksticks are made mainly of soot and animal glue, sometimes with incense or medicina ...

and

ink brush A Chinese writing brush () is a paintbrush used as a writing tool in Chinese calligraphy as well as in Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese which all have roots in Chinese calligraphy. They are also used in Chinese painting and other brush pain ...

. In 1939, she entered a marriage arranged by her parents, but their relationship was always very distant. She moved with her husband to

Dalian Dalian ( ) is a major sub-provincial port city in Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, and is Liaoning's second largest city (after the provincial capital Shenyang) and the third-most populous city of Northeast China (after Shenyang ...

Manchuria Manchuria is a historical region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China and parts of the modern-day Russian Far East south of the Uda (Khabarovsk Krai), Uda River and the Tukuringra-Dzhagdy Ranges. The exact ...

, but their marriage soon ended with his suicide, after which Iwasaki returned to Tokyo in 1941. In 1945, the Iwasaki family home in Tokyo was destroyed in an air raid, and Iwasaki and her family moved to the home of her grandmother in

Matsumoto, Nagano is a Cities of Japan, city located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Matsumoto is designated as a Core cities of Japan, core city since 1 April 2021. , the city had a population of 239,466 in 105,207 households and a population density of 240 perso ...

. In 1946, after World War II was over, she joined the

Japanese Communist Party The is a communist party in Japan. Founded in 1922, it is the oldest political party in the country. It has 250,000 members as of January 2024, making it one of the largest non-governing communist parties in the world. The party is chaired ...

, expressing a desire to end all wars and alleviate

child poverty Child poverty refers to the state of children living in poverty and applies to children from poor families and orphans being raised with limited or no state resources. UNICEF estimates that 356 million children live in extreme poverty. It is esti ...

. After moving back to Tokyo, she became a writer and illustrator for the '' Jimmin Shinbun''. She also drew numerous illustration for commercial posters, magazines and school text books as much as she could. In 1949, an editor of Doshinsha, a children's book publishing company, requested her to create ''Okaasan no Hanashi'' (The Story of a Mother), a kind of educational

Kamishibai is a form of Japanese street theater and storytelling that was popular during the Great Depression of the 1930s and the postwar period in Japan until the advent of television during the mid-20th century. were performed by a (" narrator") who ...

which became her first children's work It was published in 1950, and was awarded the Minister of Education Prize. When this success brought her some money, she made up her mind to be a professional illustrator. In the same year, she remarried to Zenmei Matsumoto, a fellow communist seven years younger than her. She bore their only child in 1951, a son named Takeshi whom she frequently used as a model for her illustrations of babies and children for children's books and magazines. In 1952, she had a home built in

Nerima, Tokyo is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward in the Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis in Japan. The ward refers to itself as Nerima City. , the ward has an estimated population of 721,858, with 323,296 households and a population density of 15,013 persons ...

, which became ''The Chihiro Art Museum Tokyo'' after she died. In 1956, Iwasaki authored her first

picture book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The ima ...

, ''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. In 1960, her ''AIUEO no Hon'' (The Alphabet Book: A-I-U-E-O) won the Sankei Children's Books Award. In 1966, Iwasaki moved to a cottage with studio in the Kurohime Highlands, near

Lake Nojiri is in the town of Shinano, Kamiminochi District, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Second to Lake Suwa among lakes in Nagano Prefecture, Nojiri is a resort, the location of the first pumped-storage hydroelectricity in Japan, and the site of a Japanes ...

Nagano Prefecture is a Landlocked country, landlocked Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Nagano Prefecture has a population of 2,007,682 () and has a geographic area of . Nagano Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture ...

. She loved the Kurohime Highlands and spent much time making illustrations for

children's books A child () is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking countries, the legal definition of ''chi ...

in this cottage every year. In 1971, ''Kotori no Kuru Hi'' (The Pretty Bird) won the Graphic Prize Fiera di Bologna. ''Senka no Naka no Kodomo-tachi'' (Children in the Flames of War), published in 1973, won the bronze medal of the Leipzig International Book Fair the following year. In 1974, Iwasaki died of liver cancer at the age of 55. Seven years after her death, in 1981, '' Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window'', written by

Tetsuko Kuroyanagi is a Japanese actress, television personality, World Wide Fund for Nature advisor, and Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF. She joined NHK Broadcasting Theatre Company as the first television actress in 1953. In 1954, she made her debut as the lead ...

, was published with selected illustrations by Iwasaki. An English edition was published in 1984.

Style

Her main illustrations were watercolors, but some of her works included traditional Japanese and Chinese ink painting techniques. Representing shapes with color blurs without drawing outlines, Applying another color before the first color dries to create a complex bleed, Making the most of the blurred touch of the brush, etc. She used these techniques to create soft, clear, and unique tones. She also created oil paintings. Her style was largely influenced by two of her favorite writers,

Kenji Miyazawa was a Japanese novelist, poet, and children's literature writer from Hanamaki, Iwate, in the late Taishō and early Shōwa periods. He was also known as an agricultural science teacher, vegetarian, cellist, devout Buddhist, and utopian social ...

and

Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogue (literature), travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fai ...

. She wrote that she felt something in common with

Marie Laurencin Marie Laurencin (31 October 1883 – 8 June 1956) was a French painter and printmaker. She became an important figure in the Parisian avant-garde as a member of the Cubists associated with the Section d'Or. Biography Laurencin was born in Par ...

when she saw one of her pictures, and said she was also impressed by

Käthe Kollwitz Käthe Kollwitz ( born Schmidt; 8 July 186722 April 1945) was a German artist who worked with painting, printmaking (including etching, lithography and woodcuts) and sculpture. Her most famous art cycles, including ''The Weavers'' and ''The Peasa ...

Memorial museums

150922 Chihiro Art Museum Azumino Japan01s3

There are two memorial museums dedicated to Chihiro Iwasaki: ''The Chihiro Art Museum Tokyo'' (ちひろ美術館・東京, located in

, since 1977) and ''Chihiro Art Museum Azumino'' (安曇野ちひろ美術館, located in

Azumino, Nagano is a city located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 97,761 in 39744 households, and a population density of 290 persons per km2. Its total area is . Etymology of Azumino Azumino is a combination of two word ...

; since 1997) are both run by the ''Chihiro Iwasaki Memorial Foundation'' (いわさきちひろ記念事業団, founded in 1976). Both museums collect and exhibit original illustrations of children's books by Chihiro and other artists.

Works

Chihiro is said to have made nearly seven thousand drawings in her life. This is a partial list of her works. * ''Okasan no Hanashi'' (The Story of a Mother) : a kind of ''educational

'', 1949 * ''Hitori de Dekiru yo'' (I Can Do It All by Myself) 1956 * ''AIUEO no Hon'' (The Alphabet Book: A-I-U-E-O), 1960 * ''E no Nai Ehon'' (What the Moon Saw) originally written by H.C. Andersen, 1966 * ''

Tsuru no Ongaeshi is a story from Japanese folklore about a crane who returns a favor to a man. A variant of the story where a man marries the crane that returns the favor is known as . According to Japanese scholar Seki Keigo, the story is "one of the best know ...

'' (The Crane Maiden) text by

Miyoko Matsutani Miyoko Matsutani was a Japanese picture book author and folktale researcher. She is best known for writing the book '' Taro the Dragon Boy.'' Early life and education Matsutani was born in Tokyo, Japan on February 14, 1926. She was the youngest ...

, illustration by Chihiro Iwasaki, 1966 * ''Watashi ga Chiisakatta Toki ni'' (When I Was a Child), 1967 * ''Ame no Hi no Orusuban'' (Staying Home Alone on a Rainy Day), 1968 * ''The Red Shoes'' originally written by H.C. Andersen, illustration by Chihiro, in 1968 * ''Kotori no Kuru Hi'' (The Pretty Bird), 1973 * ''Senka no Naka no Kodomo-tachi'' (Children in the Flames of War), 1973 * ''Akai Rosoku to Ningyo'' (The Red Candles and the Mermaid) (published posthumously in 1974) with text by

Mimei Ogawa , also called Ogawa Bimei, was an author of short stories, children's stories, and fairy tales. Because he was one of the first authors to publish children's stories under his own name, Ogawa has been called Japan's Hans Christian Andersen, an app ...

; Books published in English * Chihiro Iwasaki, ''Staying Home Alone on a Rainy Day'', McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1969. * Hans Christian Andersen, ''The Little Mermaid'', Picture Book Studio (Natick, MA), 1984. * Anthea Bell ''Swan Lake: A Traditional Folktale'' (adaptation of Tchaikovsky's Lebedinoe ozero), Picture Book Studio (Natick, MA), 1986. * Anthea Bell ''The Wise Queen'', Picture Book Studio (Natick, MA), 1986. *Hans Christian Andersen, ''The Red Shoes'', Neugebauer (Boston, MA) Press, 1983 . * Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarves'', Picture Book Studio (Natick, MA), 1985. * Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, '' Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window'', Kodansha USA, 2011.

References

External links