Kota Taniuchi (1947–2019) A Japanese picture-book artist and painter born in Kanagawa Prefecture. After leaving the oil painting program at Tama Art University, he began creating picture books with encouragement from his uncle, the artist Rokuro Taniuchi, and published his first books in 1969. In 1971, "Natsu no Asa" made him the first Japanese artist to receive the Graphic Prize at the Bologna Children's Book Fair. He moved to Europe that same year and later settled in France, where he continued to create picture books and oil paintings. His work is characterized by expansive skies and landscapes, subtle changes in light and atmosphere, and spare, poetic combinations of images and words. In "Natsu no Asa," a boy runs across the fields on a summer morning to watch a steam train, as the bright landscape, the sound of the train, and the child's imagination flow into one another.
