SCBWI Tokyo presents
The Magic of Kamishibai
with Kyoko Sakai and Etsuko Nozaka
of the International Kamishibai Association of Japan

Time: Saturday, February 11, 2006, 10:00 a.m.?12:00 noon

Place:Tokyo Women?s Plaza, Audio Visual Room
Jingumae 5-53-67, Shibuya, Tokyo (by the Children?s Castle
and United Nations University). For a map in Japanese see
www.tokyo-womens-plaza.metro.tokyo.jp/contents/map.html

Fee: 1,000 yen SCBWI, SWET members; 1,500 yen general admission

The event will be in English.  For more information visit www.scbwi.jp.

Kamishibai (literally paper theater) is a Japanese story form dating back to the 1930s when storytellers bicycled about towns telling stories with picture cards. Part of Japan?s unique cultural heritage, kamishibai has entered a new era, and Kyoko Sakai and Etsuko Nozaka of the International Kamishibai Association of Japan (IKAJA) will discuss the recent revival of kamishibai in Japan and its universal appeal. Current trends in the field and the marketing and publishing of kamishibai today will be covered, followed by kamishibai performances. 

Kyoko Sakai is supervisor of IKAJA (www.geocities.jp/kamishibai) and president of Doshinsha Publishing (www.doshinsha.co.jp). Etsuko Nozaka is a prolific translator of children?s books from Dutch, English and French to Japanese. Sakai and Nozaka have played key roles in introducing kamishibai overseas at the Bologna Children?s Book Fair, International Youth Library in Munich and the Asian Conference on Storytelling in New Delhi.