Fifteen short stories set in contemporary Japan that share an interest in different forms of traditions, legends, crafts, and ways of thinking.

Comics

These comics, which contain elements of sociological research, reportage, personal accounts, local legends and visual poetry, are mainly based on real interviews with Japanese residents, historical witnesses and artisans, and therefore avoid the simplifying kitsch of clichés and advertising slogans. Although the traditions passed down over decades and centuries might give meaning to modern existence, they can just as easily bind and stifle it. You might find fulfilment from following a family craft, but it might also suffocate you. The Japanese word Hikobae refers to something that is tentatively starting to grow from something which is dead. This comics collection, based on texts by the Czech-French poet Jean-Gaspard Páleníček, was created by students from the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art of the West Bohemian University in Pilsen, under the guidance of the comics writer and illustrator Václav Šlajch, and loosely follows on from an earlier project entitled Iogi, which was published in Czech, Japanese, English and Polish, and picked up a number of awards both in Czechia and abroad.