Chapter Commentaries 7

So far, Uno has created more than seventy picture books and been involved in many books for children. The first one was Inu e to ohanashi [Dog Pictures and Stories] published by Enzeru-sha in 1957 (text by Seishi Horio), for which he drew several pictures. The first book Uno illustrated completely on his own was The Blue Bird, (text by Seishi Horio, around 1957).Illustrations in it were in an adorably charming style influenced by Alice and Martin Provensen, the husband-and-wife illustrator team. This style changed, however, with Umi no komusume (Girl of the Sea, a picture book Uno planned together with Tadanori Yokoo (text by Yusuke Kaji). The emphasis was on a more unique design, and, with this, Uno's took a sharp turn towards fantasy. After that, he and children's author Yoshitomo Imae collaborated to create the sensuous picture book Anoko (That Girl]. In the years that followed, Uno frequently worked with Imae, drawing esthetic illustrations of seductive girls for books that expanded the possibilities of picture books for adults.

While Uno used psychedelic art styles in the 1970s, he produced children's books with more moderate inclinations, such as Tengu-chan (text by Yoshitomo Imae). In 1988, Uno authored and illustrated a book, Ohsama no neko (The King's Cat]. He illustrated Boku wa heitaro (I am Heitaro], his first historical picture book (text by Tadashi Ozawa) in 1994. In 2011, he made his first foray into "scary picture books" with Maimai to nainai (Maimai and Nainai] (text by Hiroko Minagawa, edited by Masao Higashi). Uno's picture books cover a wide range. His masterful ability to express concepts in a three-dimensional way allows him to change his style depending on the story and the author, one of the reasons he is in such great demand as an illustrator.