Artist Feature: Akemi Tsutsui-Kunitake

I include imagery that is comforting or familiar to me in my work. Because of my Japanese background I associate many things that are Japanese with familiarity and so those images appear in my illustrations. Some works feature creatures from Japanese folklore like the bake-kujira (a ghost that resembles a whale), oni (ogres or demons) and kodama (forest spirits, similar to dryads). Other works aim to evoke a general Japanese aesthetic through the use of certain postures and hand positions commonly seen in buddhas or in ukiyo-e prints. I also enjoy illustrating scenes that nod to my Japanese heritage through the activity or items my characters are engaging with. Examples include a witch eating ramen and gyoza, a woman bathing in an ofuro (a Japanese bath), and a vendor selling dreams in the form of dumplings or noodles from a food cart.

All of my drawings have a little bit of me in them! When I think about what I want to draw, I envision images that I would have loved to have seen when I was little. My parents surrounded me with lots of picture books with really wonderful illustrations and stories that entertained me as an only child. However, I was always a bit disappointed that I never saw characters that looked like me. I, therefore, thought that the world of fantasy and imagination was not really welcome to children like me.