Eric Carle Loves Japan Exhibition

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art will open present its newest exhibition, Eric Carle Loves Japan, an exploration of Eric Carle’s long association with the country of Japan.

Carle made five trips to Japan during his lifetime. It was the picture book museums he and his wife Barbara saw there - Chihiro Art Museum in Tokyo, Anno Art Museum in Tsuwano, and Kazuo Iwamura Picture Book Hill Museum in Tochigi - that became the inspiration for the establishment of The Carle. The six Japanese maple trees outside the Museum’s Great Hall are a reminder of this important connection.

Carle noted, “The picture book museums that we visited and admired in Japan all those years ago planted a seed that has now blossomed and grown into a home for picture book art in our own country.”

Carle’s famous The Very Hungry Caterpillar was “hatched” in Japan in 1969. The book’s editor, Ann Beneduce, brought the project to Japan when she was unable to find a printer in the United States who could affordably construct the book’s unique design elements. It was the innovative engineers at Kaisei-sha Publishing Company in Tokyo who expertly printed and aligned the die-cut holes and shortened pages that became the book’s signature features. Now, 53 years later, The Very Hungry Caterpillar is the most translated children’s book in Japan.