Gyo Fujikawa

Gyo Fujikawa (November 3, 1908 – November 26, 1998) was an American illustrator and children's book writer. A prolific creator of more than 50 books for children, her work is regularly in reprint and has been translated into 17 languages and published in 22 countries. Her most popular books, Babies and Baby Animals, have sold over 1.7 million copies in the U.S. Fujikawa is recognized for being the earliest mainstream illustrator of picture books to include children of many races in her work, before it became common to do so.

Biography Page from Babies, Grosset & Dunlap, 1963. Gyo Fujikawa was born in Berkeley, California, to Japanese parents, Hikozō and Yūko Fujikawa (藤川幽子). After graduating and spending a year in Japan, she was on the Chouinard faculty from 1933-1937. She worked for Walt Disney Productions in California as a promotional artist on Fantasia. In mid-1941 the studio relocated Fujikawa to New York; therefore, she avoided the forced internment of West Coast Japanese and Japanese Americans during World War II. Her family, however, spent the war in the internment camp at Rohwer, Arkansas.

According to Fujikawa, Walt Disney personally comforted her during this time. As she recalled:

Quote|Walt Disney was wonderful to me. [He] came to the office where I was working during the war. He came to see me especially. He said, "How are you doing? I've been worried about you." I said "I'm doing okay. If people ask me what nationality I am I tell them the truth or give them big lies, like I'm half-Chinese and half-Japanese, or part-Koreon, part-Chinese, and part-Japanese." He said "Why do you have to do that? For Christ's sake, you're an American citizen. Next time anybody asks you that, just tell them it's none of their business. Besides, you're an American citizen." He was so right. From that time on I just told everybody I was an American citizen. But he was very concerned about the Japanese Americans that worked at the studio.

Fujikawa's books have been reprinted for mass-market and published worldwide. Her most popular books, Babies, Baby Animals, A to Z Picture Book and Oh!, What A Busy Day!, represent a happy, detailed version of childhood. Her paintings of children are recognizable for round happy faces, rosy cheeks and simple dot eyes. Discussing her respect for her audience, she said: In illustrating for children, what I relish most is trying to satisfy the constant question in the back of my mind--will this picture capture a child's imagination? What can I do to enhance it further? Does it help to tell a story? I am far from being successful (whatever that means), but I am ever so grateful to small readers who find 'something' in any book of mine.

Fujikawa died on November 26, 1998, in New York Hospital. Although she was engaged at 19, she never married. Fujikawa was a life member of the Society of Illustrators.

In popular culture Playwright Lloyd Suh scripted a one-act play imagining a dialogue between Walt Disney and Fujikawa titled Disney and Fujikawa. It was performed at the Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York City in 2017 and was reviewed by the New York Times.

In 2019 Penguin Random House published a book written by Kyo Maclear and illustrated by Julie Morstad about Fujikawa called It Began With a Page. This book was one of New York Public Library's Best Books for Kids 2019, the Globe and Mail 's 100 Books That Shaped 2019, the Chicago Public Library's Chicago Best of the Best Books of 2019 under Best Informational Books for Younger Readers and one of Kirkus Reviews ' Best of 2019 Picture Books (Biography). It was also featured on Today's "24 beautiful kids' books that reflect the Asian American experience.”