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Katsumi Komagata
Japan
Katsumi Komagata was born in 1953 in Shizuoka, and studied Graphic Design at Nippon Design Centre. He founded One Stroke in 1986, which began as a graphic design studio and later expanded into children's book publishing after the birth of his daughter. Katsumi is now world-renowned for his exquisitely crafted books.
In this post, Katsumi talks about his beautiful new picturebook about colour, ‘When the Sun Rises’, which is published by One Stroke, and for which Katsumi was awarded a Special Mention for Lifetime Achievement in the 2016 Bologna Ragazzi Awards.
Katsumi: I would like to tell you about the process of creating a book called ‘When the Sun Rises’. It was published last November.
The original purpose of the project, which I started last summer, was to create a picture book for children with impaired colour vision. I wanted to do this so children and their parents could discover and work through certain problems through the book.
At the age of ten, my teacher thought it was likely that I had abnormal colour vision because I had painted a white school building garish pink. So I had to take a colour vision test. The results indicated that I was normal, but from then on I developed a complex related to colour. I believe that even the fact that I chose the profession of a designer was because I was so determined to get over this complex.
Nowadays, no colour vision tests are conducted at elementary schools. But abnormalities are still found and can lead to children being treated ‘differently’. Symptoms of this colour abnormality manifest themselves in 5% of males. In the future, when they become adults, this problem could well lead to discrimination in the workplace.
I have been involved in other projects for blind children and have created a number of books, such as ‘Plis et plans’ and ‘Leaves’.
I did job after job, and I wanted to be able to do the colour vision project as well. However, while I was manipulating a great many circles with differing colours on the computer, I came under a lot of stress. My vision became blurry and I developed astigmatism. For that reason, I decided to take a break and abandon the project for some time. But I still wanted to produce a book about colours, so rather than making a book relying on an intricate colour makeup, what I had in mind was a book that would be very simple, using vivid colours: a book that would be splashed with the colour itself. ‘When the Sun Rises’ is this book.
At the trial stage, I produced the book at a small size and then tried to enlarge it to 25cm x 36cm. As was to be expected, just enlarging it caused problems with the volume of white and the colour makeup. It became necessary to make adjustments because of this.
When we sent the book to the printers, besides checking the colours on the proof, we scrupulously verified the colours by joint inspection during the printing process. As a result, almost all of the colours had to be printed using special inks.
Although there were a lot of twists and turns, the finished book went as far as to receive a Special Mention in the 2016 Bologna Ragazzi Awards. This was hugely encouraging. The next thing I want to do is complete my stalled ‘Colour Vision Picture Book’ project.
Illustrations © Katsumi Komagata. Post translated by Gengo and edited by dPICTUS.
When the Sun Rises
Katsumi Komagata
One Stroke, Japan, 2015
‘Once again the masterful Komagata demonstrates that unstinting application and perseverance are the path to exquisite, aesthetically stunning achievements. Iconic forms, negative spaces, pointed detail and a lightness of touch are the ingredients that give this volume its universal poetic. The images remain impressed in the folds of memory like a sunset seen for the first time.’
—The Bologna Ragazzi Award Jury
