とっくん

The beating of our hearts

Katsumi Komagata was a legendary artist. His work is recognized by the simplicity of his ideas and the sophistication in their execution. His children's books always demonstrates a deep understanding of children and their worlds. As an artist, he has the ability to understand what is needed and add only that, not a single element more, with elegance and precision. With とっくん , he has created a small work of art that is wordless, but not textless, silent, but not without sound. 

This book has an insert, a greeting to the adult reader written by Komagata himself.  He shares how the inspiration came from taking a bath with his three-year old daughter. They suddenly started to talk about what it was lik inside her mother' s tummy. The book is therefore centered around the beating of the heart. The words on the pages are onomatepoeia, mimicing how our heartbeats may sound gentle at some times, may sound rythmic at others, and may even sound fierce on occasions.

Komagata has made several legendary books for toddlers, like the 10-book set Little Eyes and I' m being born! とっくん holds the same level of quality. The organic cut-outs, the vivid colors and the soft shapes all appeal to the wide-open senses of the youngest children, and together with the heart-sounds make for a sensory, joyful introduction to the world of books. Maybe it can also awaken memories of their recent stay in their mothers womb?

In the insert, Komagata reminds us that picture books grow old with us. This is a good book to introduce also to older children. Way too often, we have an agenda when reading for children - even reading silent books: we want them to practice their storytelling or learn vocabulary or to cooperate or some other goal. And often we are way too eager to add words to the wordless world, to figure out what it 's really about, instead of just enjoying the visual and sensory experience. A book like this forces us to do just that - there is no story to be found, but there are colors to be enjoyed, cut-outs to explore, shapes to wonder about.

This book was published in February 2024, two months before Komagata passed away. As far as we know, it was the last book he published, and it is a wonderful testament to his art.