Akemi Yamafuku

Akemi Yamafuku was born in 1963 in a printing house in Fukuoka, Japan. She moved to Tokyo when she was eighteen to become and actress but instead discovered that her real vocation was illustration, design and craftwork. In 2004 she started making wood-block prints and found that printing was the perfect media for expressing herself as a storyteller. In 2005 Kakūsha published her first picture book, “Sabaku no machi to safuronzake" (A Desert Town and Saffron Liquor), which illustrates a story written by Mimei Ogawa. In 2007 her first picture book in which she is also author of the text, “Yamaneko mōfu" (The Wildcat’s Blanket), was published by Parolsha. Other titles are “Chikyū to uchu no hanashi” (Story of the Earth and the Universe) published by Kodansha, and “Guru-un gurun” published by Nōbunkyō etc. She currently lives and works in Kanagawa Prefecture where she grows fruits and vegetables in a small garden.