Shigeo Nishimura, from Gata-Goto Gata-Goto (Click-Clack Click-Clack), Doshinsha Publishing, 1999

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Chihiro Art Museum Collection: Japanese Picture Book Exhibition—From the Edo Period to the Present

It was in the Edo period (1603–1868), during which printing technology advanced and printed books became widely available, that illustrated picture books gained in popularity in Japan. This exhibition, based on the Chihiro Art Museum Collection, will showcase the history and spread of picture books from the Edo period to the present, a range spanning from traditional picture scrolls and the Kusazoshi picture books that were actively published in the Edo period, to the picture magazines for children that spread after the Meiji period, the picture books that appeared during WW II, and the classic works that are still read and loved to this day. We will highlight the changes in and development of Japanese picture books over the past approximately 400 years.