Gyo Fujikawa was born in
Berkeley, California, to
Japanese parents, Hikozō and Yūko Fujikawa (藤川幽子). After graduating and spending a year in Japan, she was on the Chouinard faculty from 1933-1937. She worked for
the Walt Disney Company in California as a promotional artist, before moving to New York in 1941. Fujikawa avoided the forced
internment of West Coast Japanese and Japanese Americans during
World War II as she was living in New York at the time. Her family, however, spent the war in the internment camp at
Rohwer, Arkansas. Fujikawa's books have been reprinted for mass-market and published worldwide. Her most popular books,
Babies,
Baby Animals,
A to Z Picture Book and
Oh!, What A Busy Day!, unfailingly represent a happy, detailed version of childhood. Her joyous illustrations remain sweet and nostalgic, without ever becoming overly saccharine. Her paintings of children are recognizable for round happy faces, rosy cheeks and simple dot eyes. Discussing her respect for her audience, she said: In illustrating for children, what I relish most is trying to satisfy the constant question in the back of my mind--will this picture capture a child's imagination? What can I do to enhance it further? Does it help to tell a story? I am far from being successful (whatever that means), but I am ever so grateful to small readers who find 'something' in any book of mine. Fujikawa died on November 26, 1998, in New York Hospital. Although she was engaged at 19, she never married. == Other work ==