Last September, I participated in an exhibition (at Flew Gallery, Tokyo) : Ihatov* Chronicle - featuring works by Kenji Miyazawa (one of Japanese popular modern novelists/ poets of children's literature) . I exhibited some works about my favourite Kenji’s novel "Gauche The Cellist” In which a young cellist learns and develops his cello skill through interactions with animals.

Doesn't this story sound lovely?♡

Scene1:

Gauche was on the way home after being scolded a lot by the band leader in a joint practice.  He was kinda "dropout" in his local village band.

Scene2: As soon as he got home, he started practicing again like crazy.

Scene3: 

One day, a stray cat stealing tomatoes from Gauche's field and holding them in his arms came in through the door. And then he made some requests to Gauche to play a piece arrogantly. That attitude made Gauche very angry and so in revenge he gave the cat a crazily noisy play to frighten him.

Scene4: On the next evening, a cuckoo came in through the attic and asked Gauche to teach him music. First, her melody was unstable but eventually she began to sing so beautifully that Gauche was surprised.

Scene 5: On the next day, a raccoon came in saying " I am a  small drummer in the band". At last Gauche fed up with every night's unexpected guests and said with a little anger "I'll eat you up with soup!"

But without flinch, the raccoon took out two sticks from his back and beat with the rhythm on the bridge of Gauche's cello. That brought Gauche a little joy to continue to play music. 

Scene 6: On the next evening, a mother mouse with baby appeared saying "my baby is sick now. Could you play a music to cure him?"

There seems to be a rumor that Gauche's play heals diseases.So he put the baby in the hall of the cello and...

Including the end of the story, I am planning to make some more illustrations and would like to make small books with some text. (book sample with English and Japanese text↓)

Music is universal language among all creatures, isn' it 🎶