Kano Naganobu (paintings)
Momotarō and the Island of Ogres
George Braziller, 2005
Since East Asian painting has long interested me, I was delighted to find this illustrated folktale. Stephanie Wada, a curator of Japanese art, illustrates her retelling of Momotarō with details taken from a set of two handscroll paintings by Kano Naganobu (1775-1828), a painter to the Tokugawa shogunate. The wide, skinny format of the book shows parts of the painting to their best advantage. As we follow the adopted Momotarō, born from a peach, along his journey to Onigashima (the island of ogres), we are treated to splendid landscapes of rivers and mountains, scenes of confrontation and battle, and views of triumph and celebration. The images are subtler than your run-of-the-mill picture book, and the prose more adult. Together, images and text demand and reward more careful engagement. If only we could have kibi-dango dumplings as part of our reward, too!
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