katsumi komagata: tears

(なみだ)

A sensitive tale on sadness.

A child has an argument with a friend and sheds a tear. The tear drops to the ground and goes on a journey...

A storybook that is a pleasure for the eyes and for the smallest of hands: curious fingers lift, unfold, fold back, roll up and bind the pages in a continuous visual game.

Katsumi Komagata overturns the traditional form of the book, allowing the reader to experience the space of the page in a new way. Through the images he tells us that in our world our vision of things is partial, relative and often deceitful. With simplicity and immediacy - and above all with limited means - he obtains results of great quality. He narrates small stories among the folds of his books that look like a game of hide-and-seek. The reader’s eyes become progressively more audacious seizing on the author’s idea of playing at hiding and then revealing.

Between seriousness and irony, confirmation and surprise, a profound complicity takes place between the author and his readers. A tactile as well as a visual experience, for book art enthusiasts as much as for parents sharing the book with a child.

first published in 2000
cardback with traditional pages and pages of die-cut shapes
Japanese with separate English translation

printed and bound in Tokyo, Japan