Kamishibai (literally "paper plays") are a staple of early childhood education in Japan, often presenting stories about traditional festivals and events. The presenter shows the audience a series of text-free pictures while performing the narrative and dialogue. The kamishibai images allow considerable flexibility in performance. Traditional motifs in the images make them understandable to a pre-literate audience. They also create a shared visual language of cultural symbols that the children will hold in common, and help sustain lifelong interest in traditional events and festivals. This presentation will examine how kamishibai help to reflect, shape, and create images of traditional festivals and events, how the flexibility of the presentation format creates a richer visual language than anime and film, and how they inspire children to create their own visual interpretations. The campfire portion will encourage participants to consider how kamishibai might be used to present traditions in their own culture.
