This project is called "Mukashi mukashi - Tales from Japan", an amazing work I made during my third year at Scuola Internazionale di Comics in Turin, May/June 2019.
We had a traditional Japanese tale to turn into a little illustrated book.
The story is about a mother, her son and a...kingfisher.
I really liked studying and discovering a lot of things about the Japanese culture.
I particularly loved exploring all the meanings behind the female hairstyles, the subject I chose for the endpapers illustrations.
Hope you enjoy it!
Book cover
Pages 1 and 2 - In this tale there is a mother that loves her child really bad, but the son never cares about her and listens to her. Because of all these worries the mother gets sick.
Pages 3 and 4 - One day the mother asks the son to give her some water. He doesn't want to go out and take the water so he hands her an ember. His mother literally dies from fear in front of his eyes and suddenly the son starts turning into a bird.
Pages 5 and 6 - The child has become a kingfisher with bright red feathers. Every time he reflects himself on the water surface he sees everything red and thinks that the water turned into fire. Because of this belief he's cursed to drink only rainwater.
Traditional Hime cut and Karawa-mage
Traditional Taka-shimada and Momoware
Traditional Kushimaki and Yoko-Hyogo
Traditional Marumage and Harunobu
