Gyo Fujikawa (November 3, 1908 – November 26, 1998) was an American illustrator and

children's book Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

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.''Gyo Fujikawa, a Children's Illustrator Forging the Way'', Dr. Andrea Wyman. Versed, Sept. 2005.
URL accessed 21 July 2009.

Biography

Gyo Fujikawa was born in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...

, to Japanese parents, Hikozō and Yūko Fujikawa (藤川幽子). The masculine name Gyo (pronounced "gyoh") is after a

Chinese emperor ''Huangdi'' (), translated into English as Emperor, was the superlative title held by monarchs of China who ruled various imperial regimes in Chinese history. In traditional Chinese political theory, the emperor was considered the Son of Heave ...

her father admired. Gyo Fujikawa moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

to attend

Chouinard Art Institute The Chouinard Art Institute was a professional art school founded in 1921 by Nelbert Murphy Chouinard (1879–1969) in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. In 1961, Walt and Roy Disney guided the merger of the Chouinard Art I ...

in 1926, having received a scholarship, and befriended Japanese dancer

Michio Ito Michio (written: 道夫, 道雄, 道郎, 通夫 or 三知男) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese shogi player *, Japanese dancer and choreographer *Michio Kaku (born 1947), American theoretical ph ...

and many fellow

Nisei is a Japanese-language term used in countries in North America and South America to specify the ethnically Japanese children born in the new country to Japanese-born immigrants (who are called ). The are considered the second generation, ...

writers and artists. After graduating and spending a year in Japan, she was on the Chouinard faculty from 1933-1937. She worked for

the Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on Octobe ...

in California as a promotional artist, before moving to New York in 1941. Fujikawa avoided the forced internment of West Coast Japanese and Japanese Americans during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

as she was living in New York at the time. Her family, however, spent the war in the internment camp at Rohwer, Arkansas. From 1943-51 she worked for pharmaceutical advertising agency William Douglas McAdams. In 1951 Fujikawa became a full-time freelancer, producing more than 80 front-cover illustrations for ''Children's Digest'' and other periodicals, and about five years later was approached by juvenile editor Debra Dorfman at

Grosset & Dunlap Grosset & Dunlap is a New York City-based publishing house founded in 1898. The company was purchased by G. P. Putnam's Sons in 1982 and today is part of Penguin Random House through its subsidiary Penguin Group. Today, through the Penguin Gr ...

to illustrate

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as '' Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...

's ''"

A Child's Garden of Verses ''A Child's Garden of Verses'' is an 1885 volume of 64 poems for children by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. It has been reprinted many times, often in illustrated versions, and is considered to be one of the most influential child ...

"''. This was her first published children's book, in 1957. ''Babies'', the first book both written and illustrated by Fujikawa in 1963, was also one of the earliest children's books to use multi-racial characters, a consistent feature across her body of work. After the success of "A Child's Garden of Verses," Fujikawa became one of the first artists to contract for

Royalty payment A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset o ...

, refusing to perform work unless her publisher agreed to pay her royalties. 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!'', unfailingly represent a happy, detailed version of childhood. Her joyous illustrations remain sweet and nostalgic, without ever becoming overly saccharine. 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 had been engaged at the age of 19, she never married.

Other work

Fujikawa's notable commercial clients included

Upjohn Company The Upjohn Company was a pharmaceutical manufacturing firm founded in 1886 in Hastings, Michigan, by Dr. William E. Upjohn who was an 1875 graduate of the University of Michigan medical school. The company was originally formed to make ''friabl ...

vitamins,

Beech-Nut Beech-Nut Nutrition Corporation is a baby food company owned by the Swiss branded consumer-goods firm Hero Group. History Beech-Nut's roots go back to 1891, to the Mohawk Valley town of Canajoharie, New York. Raymond P. Lipe, along with hi ...

baby food and

Eskimo Pie Edy's Pie (formerly known as Eskimo Pie) is an American brand of chocolate-covered vanilla ice cream bar wrapped in foil. It was the first such dessert sold in the United States. It is marketed by Dreyer's, a division of Froneri. In wake of the ...

, creating the round-faced child icon for the ice cream treat. She created six stamps for the

United States Post Office The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the ...

, including the 1997 32¢ ''"yellow rose"'' self-adhesive stamp and the United States-Japan Treaty ratification centenary stamp of 1960. Fujikawa was a life member of the

Society of Illustrators The Society of Illustrators is a professional society based in New York City. It was founded in 1901 to promote the art of illustration and, since 1959, has held an annual exhibition. History Founding The Society of Illustrators was founded on ...

. File:Stamp US 1960 JapanTreaty100th.jpg, United States-Japan Treaty centenary stamp File:Fujikawa5cent.jpg, ''Plant for a More Beautiful America''

Cherry Blossom A cherry blossom, also known as Japanese cherry or sakura, is a flower of many trees of Prunus, genus ''Prunus'' or Prunus subg. Cerasus, ''Prunus'' subg. ''Cerasus''. They are common species in East Asia, including China, Korea and especia ...

stamp

In popular culture

Playwright Lloyd Suh scripted a one-act play imagining a dialogue between

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

and Fujikawa titled ''Disney and Fujikawa''. It was performed at the

Ensemble Studio Theatre The Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST) is a non-profit membership-based developmental theatre located in Hell's Kitchen, New York City. It has a dual mission of nurturing individual theatre artists and developing new American plays. Overview The E ...

in New York City in 2017 and was reviewed by the ''New York Times''. In 2019

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House LLC is an Anglo-American multinational conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, from the merger of Penguin Group and Random House. On April 2, 2020, Bertelsmann announced the completion of its purchase ...

published a book written by

Kyo Maclear Kyo Maclear (born 1970) is a Canadian novelist and children's author. Maclear was born in England and moved to Canada at a young age. Her father is the journalist and documentary filmmaker Michael Maclear. She studied fine art and art history a ...

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.”

Bibliography

Written and illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa

* ''Babies'', 1963 * ''Baby Animals'', 1963 *''A to Z Picture Book'', 1974 *''Let's Eat'', 1975 *''Let's Play'', 1975 *''Puppies, Pussycats, and Other Friends'', 1975 *''Sleepy Time'', 1975 *''Oh, What a Busy Day!'', 1976 *''Babies of the Wild'', 1977 *''Betty Bear's Birthday'', 1977 *''Can You Count? New York'', 1977 *''Our Best Friends'', 1977 *''Millie's Secret'', 1978 *''Let's Grow A Garden'', 1978 *''My Favorite Thing'', 1978 *''Surprise! Surprise!'', 1978 *''Come Follow Me to the Secret World of Elves and Fairies and Gnomes and Trolls'', 1979 *''Jenny Learns A Lesson'', 1980 *''Welcome Is a Wonderful Word'', 1980 *''Come Out and Play'', 1981 *''Dreamland'', 1981 *''Fairyland'', 1981 *''Faraway Friends'', 1981 *''The Flyaway Kite'', 1981 *''Good Morning!'', 1981 *''Here I Am'', 1981 *''Jenny and Jupie'', 1981 *''The Magic Show'', 1981 *''Make-Believe'', 1981 *''My Animal Friends'', 1981 *''One, Two, Three, A Counting Book'', 1981 *''Shags Has a Dream'', 1981 *''Mother Goose'', 1981 *''A Tiny Word Book'', 1981 *''Year In, Year Out'', 1981 *''Jenny and Jupie to the Rescue'', 1982 *''Fraidy Cat'', 1982 *''Me Too! New York'', 1982 *''Sam's All-Wrong Day'', 1982 *''Shags Finds a Kitten'', 1983 *''That's Not Fair'', 1983 *''Are You My Friend Today?'', 1988 *''Sunny Books: Four Favorite Tales'', 1989 *''Ten Little Babies'', 1989 *''See What I Can Be!'', 1990 *''Good Night, Sleep Tight, Shh'', 1990 *''Be Careful, Brian and Other Tales'', 1996

Illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa

*''I Like Automobiles'', 1931, by Dorothy Walter Baruch *''

'', 1957, by

*''

The Night Before Christmas ''A Visit from St. Nicholas'', more commonly known as ''The Night Before Christmas'' and ''Twas the Night Before Christmas'' from its first line, is a poem first published anonymously under the title ''Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas'' i ...

'', 1961, by Clement C. Moore *''Mother Goose'', 1968 *''A Child's Book of Poems'', 1969 *''Fairy Tales and Fables'', 1970 *''Poems for Children'', 1980 *''Baby Mother Goose'', 1989 *''Poems for Small Friends'', 1989

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fujikawa, Gyo 1908 births 1998 deaths American children's writers American illustrators American writers of Japanese descent American artists of Japanese descent American stamp designers Artists from California Writers from Berkeley, California Artists from Berkeley, California Disney people 20th-century illustrators of fairy tales American expatriates in Japan American women writers of Asian descent