To round out our series on Japanese children’s books, this month we profile the widely acclaimed writer and illustrator, Satoshi Kitamura.
Born in Tokyo in 1956, Kitamura bypassed formal artistic training but read manga and drew constantly as a child. As a young adult, he worked briefly as a graphic artist before moving to England in 1979 at age 23. He found a job designing greeting cards while searching for small venues to exhibit his art. Kitamura landed illustration work for a picture book. That first book, published in 1982, was “Angry Arthur,” written by Hiawyn Oram and now a classic piece of children’s literature. It earned Kitamura the 1983 Mother Goose Award for most exciting newcomer to British children’s book illustration.
Since then, he’s written more than 20 books and illustrated many others with collaborators, including several with Oram. Kitamura moved back to Japan in 2009 to care for his parents but continues to publish mostly in English, although he also publishes in Japanese and has been translated into Spanish, French and Chinese, as well as many other languages.