Gyo Fujikawa facts for kids

Gyo Fujikawa (born November 3, 1908 – died November 26, 1998) was an American artist and writer. She was famous for illustrating and writing children's books. She created more than 50 books for kids. Her work is still very popular today. It has been translated into 17 languages and published in 22 countries.

Her most well-known books are Babies and Baby Animals. These books have sold over 1.7 million copies in the U.S. Gyo Fujikawa was one of the first artists to show children of many different races in her picture books. She did this long before it became common.

About Gyo Fujikawa

Page from Babies, a book by Gyo Fujikawa.

Gyo Fujikawa was born in Berkeley, California. Her parents, Hikozō and Yūko Fujikawa, were from Japan. Her first name, Gyo (pronounced "gyoh"), is a boy's name. Her father named her after an old Chinese emperor he admired.

Her Early Life and Career

In 1926, Gyo Fujikawa moved to Los Angeles. She went to the Chouinard Art Institute on a scholarship. There, she met many other Japanese American artists. After finishing art school and spending a year in Japan, she taught at Chouinard from 1933 to 1937.

Later, she worked for the Walt Disney Company in California. She created art for their promotions. In 1941, she moved to New York. This move helped her avoid the forced internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Many Japanese American families on the West Coast were sent to special camps. However, her own family had to live in an internment camp in Arkansas during the war.

From 1943 to 1951, she worked for a company that made ads for medicines. In 1951, Fujikawa became a full-time freelance artist. This means she worked for herself. She drew many front covers for magazines like Children's Digest.

About five years later, a book editor asked her to illustrate "A Child's Garden of Verses" by Robert Louis Stevenson. This book, published in 1957, was her first children's book. In 1963, she wrote and illustrated her first book, Babies. This book was also one of the first children's books to show kids of different races. This became a common feature in all her books.

After A Child's Garden of Verses was a hit, Fujikawa became one of the first artists to ask for royalties. This meant she would get a percentage of the money from each book sold. She would not work unless her publisher agreed to pay her royalties.

Her Unique Style and Impact

Gyo Fujikawa's books have been printed many times. They are sold all over the world. Her most popular books include Babies, Baby Animals, A to Z Picture Book, and Oh!, What A Busy Day!. These books always show a happy and detailed picture of childhood. Her drawings are sweet and bring back good memories. They are never too sugary or fake.

Her paintings of children are easy to spot. They have round, happy faces, rosy cheeks, and simple dot eyes. She cared a lot about her young readers. She once said: "When I draw for children, I always ask myself: will this picture make a child imagine things? How can I make it even better? Does it help tell a story? I'm not always successful, but I am so thankful to the small readers who find 'something' in any book of mine."

Gyo Fujikawa passed away on November 26, 1998, in New York Hospital. She never married.

Other Creative Projects

Gyo Fujikawa also worked for many companies. She created art for Upjohn Company vitamins and Beech-Nut baby food. She also designed the round-faced child symbol for Eskimo Pie ice cream.

She designed six stamps for the United States Post Office. These include the 1997 32¢ "yellow rose" self-adhesive stamp. She also designed the 1960 stamp for the 100th anniversary of the United States-Japan Treaty. Fujikawa was a lifelong member of the Society of Illustrators.

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  This stamp celebrates 100 years of the United States-Japan Treaty.

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  Plant for a More Beautiful America Cherry Blossom stamp.

Books She Wrote and Illustrated

Books She Illustrated for Others

• I Like Automobiles, 1931, by Dorothy Walter Baruch
• A Child's Garden of Verses, 1957, by Robert Louis Stevenson
• The Night Before Christmas, 1961, by Clement C. Moore
• Mother Goose, 1968
• A Child's Book of Poems, 1969
• Fairy Tales and Fables, 1970
• Poems for Children, 1980
• Baby Mother Goose, 1989
• Poems for Small Friends, 1989