Kyoto Day 1
I left Kobe early in the morning to catch the train to Kyoto. It was cloudy that day with little showers. I found out that sometimes it's good to do freestyling trips (going to different places without a fixed plan.) I collected some of the art pamphlets from Kobe and Kyoto just to get to know what places I want to go. The train station is packed and at first it was hard to find a place to store my luggage. Luckily there were spaces in one of the storage spaces near the station and I was able to break free lol. Since there was a time gap before I head to the hostel, I spent half of the day wagging on the streets.
While I was casually strolling on the streets, I noticed there was an art exhibition of two illustrators who illustrates children’s books by hand. Which was shown on one of the pamphlet that I collected in Kobe, I decided to have a look at their exhibition.
ぼくと わたしと みなの Tupera Tupera 繪本の世界展
About Tupera:
They are two illustrators who were also book writers. Their audience is mainly kids but they also create books around different ages groups(?) Their work mainly focuses on the images that they create. Most of their works are handcrafted by paper and (fix) their final works with drawing materials.
There were lots of people when I arrived at the place. Most of them were families bringing their kids to see the exhibition. I could tell they are popular artists amongst the children books industry. Throughout the exhibition, I could see how they evolve their work and I am amazed how they could articulate different subjects into something fun to read. As a primary learner for Japanese and an emerging artist myself, I found their work positive and playful. I have to say I enjoyed reading their books and looking at their artworks.
Other than that I appreciate all the details they put on every work. As what is mentioned, most of their works are handcrafted (cut or sliced) out of paper. The artists have showcased their working utensils in the exhibition, from those tools I could clearly see their goal striving for perfection.
I remembered an artwork that I saw from the beginning of the exhibition. It was based on their book “木がずらり”. In the middle of the artwork stands a tree, when looking at the details you will realise that the artists combined a range of colours and patterns for the tree which makes it look layered and rich. You could also tell that it is carefully cut and stuck on the piece of paper by the creators. The level of perfection is ___________.
Throughout the exhibition my favourite book from them is the “ワニニの冒険” it is fun to see how the artists tell the story through pictures and how contrasting colours match together in surprise. (They go well together). The story is adventurous and happy to read. Gahh! I wish that I could read Japanese when I was a kid and could have access to their books! But I guess its never too late haha. I can still be an adult fan of theirs. I couldn’t stop myself from getting their merch when I arrived at their souvenir shop which I’m glad I did. OH! One more thing! When I purchased their book I realised that the cover was the character from the animation movie “ミライの未来”!!
(How amazing is that! What a coincidence!)
