Chihiro Iwasaki

was a Japanese artist and illustrator best known for her water-colored illustrations of flowers and children, the theme of which was "peace and happiness for children".

Life Chihiro Iwasaki was born the first daughter of Masakatsu and Fumie Iwasaki on 15 December 1918, in Takefu (now Echizen), Fukui Prefecture, Japan. The following year, her family moved to Tokyo, where they lived until 1945. As a little girl, Chihiro loved to draw pictures. When she was fourteen years old, she began to learn drawing and oil painting under Saburōsuke Okada, an artist and professor of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts (later Tokyo University of the Arts). In 1936, Iwasaki graduated from high school, and the next year, at the age of eighteen, she began to learn how to draw Japanese calligraphy with inkstick and ink brush.

In 1939, she entered a marriage arranged by her parents, but their relationship was always very distant. She moved with her husband to Dalian, Manchuria, but their marriage soon ended with his suicide, after which Iwasaki returned to Tokyo in 1941. In 1945, the Iwasaki family home in Tokyo was destroyed in an air raid, and Iwasaki and her family moved to the home of her grandmother in Matsumoto, Nagano. In 1946, after World War II was over, she joined the Japanese Communist Party, expressing a desire to end all wars and alleviate child poverty.

After moving back to Tokyo, she became a writer and illustrator for the Jimmin Shinbun. She also drew numerous illustration for commercial posters, magazines and school text books as much as she could. In 1949, an editor of Doshinsha, a children's book publishing company, requested her to create Okaasan no Hanashi (The Story of a Mother), a kind of educational Kamishibai which became her first children's work

Memorial museums

There are two memorial museums dedicated to Chihiro Iwasaki: The Chihiro Art Museum Tokyo (ちひろ美術館・東京, located in Nerima, Tokyo, since 1977) and Chihiro Art Museum Azumino (安曇野ちひろ美術館, located in Azumino, Nagano; since 1997) are both run by the Chihiro Iwasaki Memorial Foundation (いわさきちひろ記念事業団, founded in 1976). Both museums collect and exhibit original illustrations of children's books by Chihiro and other artists.

Works Chihiro is said to have made nearly seven thousand drawings in her life. This is a partial list of her works. Okasan no Hanashi (The Story of a Mother) : a kind of educational Kamishibai, 1949 Hitori de Dekiru yo (I Can Do It All by Myself) 1956 AIUEO no Hon (The Alphabet Book: A-I-U-E-O), 1960 E no Nai Ehon (What the Moon Saw) originally written by H.C. Andersen, 1966 Tsuru no Ongaeshi (The Crane Maiden) text by Miyoko Matsutani, illustration by Chihiro Iwasaki, 1966 Watashi ga Chiisakatta Toki ni (When I Was a Child), 1967 Ame no Hi no Orusuban (Staying Home Alone on a Rainy Day), 1968 The Red Shoes originally written by H.C. Andersen, illustration by Chihiro, in 1968 Kotori no Kuru Hi (The Pretty Bird), 1973 Senka no Naka no Kodomo-tachi (Children in the Flames of War), 1973 Akai Rosoku to Ningyo (The Red Candles and the Mermaid) (published posthumously in 1974) with text by Mimei Ogawa

Books published in English Chihiro Iwasaki, Staying Home Alone on a Rainy Day, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1969. Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, Picture Book Studio (Natick, MA), 1984. Anthea Bell Swan Lake: A Traditional Folktale (adaptation of Tchaikovsky's Lebedinoe ozero), Picture Book Studio (Natick, MA), 1986. Anthea Bell The Wise Queen, Picture Book Studio (Natick, MA), 1986. Hans Christian Andersen, The Red Shoes, Neugebauer (Boston, MA) Press, 1983 . Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Picture Book Studio (Natick, MA), 1985. Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window, Kodansha USA, 2011.