Iku Dekune

Iku Dekune was born in 1969 in Tokyo, Japan. She graduated in 1992 at the Department of Oil Painting with a specialization in graphics at the Musashino Art University in Tokyo. In her art, she focuses primarily on illustrating children’s books. Her first book, which is her own fairy tale, “The Bathroom”, was publishe in 1994. She has illustrated a great number of books and picture books which include a collection of Grimm fairy tales published by Parolsha. “Wani” (The Crocodile), written by Kaho Nashiki, published in 2003 by Rironsha and Haruki Amanuma’s “Yūbinhaitasu Maruko no nagai tabi” (Postman Marco’s Long Journey) published in 2004 by The Mainichi Newspapers are some of the other main titles. Her latest book that illustrates Czech fairy tales collected by Karel Jaromír Erben was published in 2011 by Albatros, a Czech publisher. In 2003 she was awarded the Grand Prix at the Biennial of Illustration Bratislava and in the following year, created the cover of the Illustrators Exhibiton Annual of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, where she exhibited her works as visiting artist. In 2006 “Māsha to shiroi tori” (Mascia and the White Birds) was awarded the The Japan Prize for Picture Books. She has resided in Prague since 2002.