Gyo fujikawa biography meaning
It Began with a Page: How Gyo Fujikawa Drew the Way by Kyo Maclear
Themes
Be Yourself
It Began with a Page is about a Japanese-American woman who grew up in the early 1900s, who was unnoticed by her classmates until she moved to a place with more Japanese-Americans in California.
Once in Japan, she decided to leave the instruction of her art teachers and pursue art her way, studying what she wanted and how. It was the decision to follow her passions that helped her determine her own artistic style.
Be Brave
Ms Fujikawa completed and sought a publisher for her Babies book during the era of segregation. She saw a world where children of all ethnic backgrounds could exist in a culture that said they should not. And when told “no” by publishers, she continued to believe in her vision.
Conversations
The easiest conversation to have was, of course, when we got to the part where she worked for Walt Disney. My sons were able to recognize how exciting that would be to work as and among the top artists in entertainment.
We discussed the Japanese Internment Camps and how hard it must have been for Gyo to be free on one side of the country while her family were forced from their homes and into camps, away from everything and everyone they ever knew.
This led to a discussion on how fear drives racism. It was fear that drove President Franklin D. Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 9066, which ordered all Americans of Japanese descent into camps following the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Military. Fear led to racist treatment of fellow Americans, which led to racist discrimination against them.
In age-appropriate terms, my sons were able to understand that people who looked a certain way were treated differently entirely because society had told them they should be afraid. They were able to take a step back and recognize that people are people, regardless of their outward appearances, all have a right to being treated with kindness, dign American writer and illustrator 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. Gyo Fujikawa was born in Berkeley, California, to Japanese parents, Hikozō and Yūko Fujikawa (藤川幽子). The masculine name Gyo (pronounced "gyoh") is after a Chinese emperor her father admired. Gyo Fujikawa moved to Los Angeles to attend Chouinard Art Institute in 1926, having received a scholarship, and befriended Japanese dancer Michio Ito and many fellow Nisei 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 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 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 to illustrate Robert Louis Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses". This was her first published children's book, in 19 Gyo Fujikawa (November 3, 1908 – November 26, 1998) was an American illustrator and children's book author. 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 was born in Berkeley, California, to Japanese parents, Hikozō and Yūko Fujikawa (藤川幽子). The masculine name Gyo (pronounced "gyoh") is after a Chinese emperor her father admired. Gyo Fujikawa moved to Los Angeles to attend Chouinard Art Institute in 1926, having received a scholarship, and befriended Japanese dancer Michio Ito and many fellow Nisei writers and artists. After graduating and spending a year in Japan, she was on the Chouinard faculty from 1933-37. She worked for the Walt Disney Company 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 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 a dozen 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 to illustrate Robert Louis Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses". 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 ea
Gyo Fujikawa
Biography
The Reading Corner.. Gyo Fujikawa
Author and illustrator, Gyo Fujikawa
Born: November 3, 1908
Place of Birth: Berkley, California
Parents: Hikozo and Yu Fujikawa
Died: November 26/1998... Ms. Fujikawa was 90 years old and lived in Manhattan at the time of her death.
Busy Day was one of my children's favorite books. Out of four children, we went through two "Busy Day's"...they were THAT read and THAT used....of course, my grandson, LVM, has this book now and loves it as much as his Mama did!
Miss Fujikawa's father borrowed her first name from a Chinese emperor and her name rhymes with Leo.The daughter of a Japanese farmer and an aspiring Japanese social worker, Miss Fujikawa was among the first illustrators to command royalties rather than a flat fee.
Miss Fujikawa studied at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles before and after spending 1932 in Japan, where she developed a love of Japanese art and a stronger appreciation of her heritage. Back home, she did promotional work on the movie ''Fantasia'' for Disney Studios, which later sent her to its advertising department in New York, where she designed many 25-cent Disney books. "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."
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II, Mrs. Fujikawa's family was interned in Arkansas in a relocation camp. During the war Miss Fujikawa did movie and pharm Gyo Fujikawa facts for kids
Biography