TOTAL LICENSING
MEMORIES OF ERIC CARLE By Tetsuo Ishida, Founder and Former President & Chairman, Cosmo Merchandising, Japan (retired 2021) to the USA and meet Eric Carle. My first impression of him was, as I expected, of a gentle, kind, and humorous man. The editor of MOE, a Japanese magazine specializing in picture books, accompanied our group for the interview. Eric Carle gave us a wonderful demonstration of his art by immediately making some pictures out of colored tissue
Eric Carle presented Tetsuo Ishida with an illustrated memory of their dinner at a Kyoto teahouse.The Very Hungry Caterpillar is holding a bottle of Japanese sake rice wine. Illustration © Eric Carle Photos courtesy of Tetsuo Ishida
“I first met Eric Carle in October 2006 in his studio in Northampton, Massachusetts, USA. Cosmo Merchandising, the Japanese licensing agency that I founded and ran, was the first company to obtain the merchandise and promotional licensing rights to represent Eric Carle’s work in Japan in 2005. As a result of our appointment as licensing agent, a small group consisting of Mr. Masaki Imamura, the president of Kaisei-Sha Publishing, the publisher of the Japanese editions of Eric Carle’s picture books, a few licensees (still about five at the time) and Roger Berman, Cosmo Merchandising’s international licensing manager at the time, decided to travel
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Eric Carle at the Kyoto teahouse holding a note written by one of the Maiko dancers saying, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar - I have read this since I was small. It’s my favorite picture book”. (April 2017)
Eric Carle in a group shot at his Welcome Reception in Tokyo with Japanese licensees and other business partners (April 2017). paper. I was very fortunate to be able to see his creativity first-hand, which of course had a big influence on my subsequent licensing of his art. I will never forget being shown around The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, which is located in a beautiful setting in Amherst, Massachusetts, and being invited to a dinner party where his wife, Bobbie, was also present. Over the last few years, The World of Eric Carle Japan licensing program has considerably expanded. The number of licensees and product ranges have increased dramatically. Moreover, in terms of quality, many licensed products have been created that respect and preserve Eric’s work. In 2017, we invited Eric Carle to Japan
