On Saturday at 3 p.m., Caldecott Award-winning author and illustrator Allen Say will visit the Cotsen Children’s Library at Princeton University for a talk about his newly published children’s book, "Kamishibai Man." After his presentation, members of the Cotsen Kamishibai Kidz performing troupe will perform, and then Mr. Say will sign books that can be purchased during the program.
"Kamishibai" (paper-theater) is a street performance art that began in Japan in the early 1930s and became widely popular there until the late 1950s. It is rooted in a long tradition of commingled narrative and pictorial art forms in Japan, but it also draws from foreign imports such as early silent film. The kamishibai storyteller would ride his bicycle from one neighborhood to another, selling candy to the children and then telling them stories while manipulating a series of illustrated cards inside a wooden stage.
Allen Say has captured the nostalgia felt by many Japanese people for this popular art form through the use of exquisitely detailed watercolors in two distinct styles. Mr. Say traces the decline of kamishibai with the advent of television, initially called denki (electric) kamishibai in Japan, and the lonely fate of so many kamishibai men who were lost to history.
According to a Cotsen spokesman, Mr. Say could not have chosen a better time to write this book. Kamishibai is experiencing a renaissance in Japan, where kamishibai conventions are held annually, and people of all ages gather to perform their own illustrated stories.
Right here in Princeton, artist and storyteller Tara McGowan, who has studied with kamishibai performers and illustrators in Japan, has been offering kamishibai workshops for children at Cotsen Children’s Library. Kamishibai Kidz, a troupe of children who have attended these workshops, has performed for the past couple of years at Communiversity and other events on campus. It is the first performing troupe of its kind in the United States.
Registration for Saturday’s event is encouraged as space is limited. For further information and to register for this event, contact Cotsen Education and Outreach Coordinator Cory Alperstein at (609) 258-2697, or e-mail [email protected].
