Katsumi Komagata

(Shizuoka, Japan, 1953). Following a stint at Nippon Design Center, Inc., he moved to the United States in 1977, where he worked as a graphic designer. He returned to Japan in 1983 and three years later founded One Stroke, which began as a graphic design studio and later expanded into publishing. The birth of a daughter prompted him to take up picture-book authoring and he is now world-renowned for his exquisitely crafted books. He has also created picture books for children with disabilities, including tactile and sign-language books. He won numerous honors, including an ADC Silver Cube (New York), the Prize for Creativity (Paris), a New Art Prize as well as a BolognaRagazzi Award Mention at the Bologna Children's Book Fair, an International Children's Book Award (Switzerland), and two Good Design Awards (Japan). His exhibitions and workshops are held at public facilities at museums and libraries in France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, as well as around the world, including Mexico, Brazil, South Korea, and China. “LES LIVRES DE … KATSUMI KOMAGATA” published by Les Trois Ourses, France in 2013 and  “The books of KATSUMI KOMAGATA'' published by lazy dog, Italy in 2019 are among his works. Starting at the Itabashi Art Museum in 2019, the exhibition “Small Design Katsumi Komagata'' has been toured to the Fukuoka Artium Museum, the Iwate Art Museum, the Ashikaga City Museum of Art, the Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum and at the Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris in 2022. The exhibition “Surprising  Books by KATSUMI KOMAGATA” was held at the Ueda City Museum, then at the Okazaki Children Art Museum in 2021. Since 2021, he set up an atelier in Ichinoseki, Iwate, and works here as an activity base.