In bookstores, the story of Otama Kiyohara in comics, Japanese painter who brought oriental art to Sicily

Coming January 24 to bookstores and comic shops is La Vita di Otama, which tells the fascinating story of the Japanese painter who brought Oriental art to Sicily. The result of an unpublished collaboration between cartoonist Andrea Accardi and Japanese cartoonist and writer Keiko Ichiguchi, The Life of Otama takes readers on a journey between Tokyo and Palermo, tracing the life of Otama Kiyohara (Tokyo, 1861 - 1939)). Otama always lived poised between two worlds-Japan and Europe. She was the first Japanese painter to paint in the European style and also the first Japanese woman to pose as a model for a European artist, the Palermo-born sculptor Vincenzo Ragusa, who later became her husband.

The story follows Otama in her discovery of the warm and overwhelming beauty of Palermo, a city that welcomed her and influenced her profoundly. Fifty years later, Otama will return to her Japan, only to find that many things have changed...

Published by Sergio Bonelli Editore, the volume is enriched by a preface by Professor Maria Antonietta Spadaro, author of valuable research on Otama Kiyohara, and a gallery by Andrea Accardi that collects some of the sketches made to study the main characters of the story, the settings and costumes of the time.

“I discovered Otama at the Civic Gallery of Modern Art in Palermo, admiring his terracotta bust sculpted by Vincenzo Ragusa. The caption read, Portrait of his wife. Who on earth could this Palermo sculptor’s wife have been, with her somatic features and unmistakable Japanese hairstyle? It would be many years before this curiosity would turn into the intention to make a book out of it, until, at some point, I proposed to Keiko to make Otama’s story with her,” Andrea Accardi recounted. “It seemed like the perfect combination: an Italian cartoonist born in Palermo and a Japanese scriptwriter who has lived in Italy for years (and married to an Italian). That’s how our adventure began.”

“Otama is still little known in Japan today. There are only two biographies about her written in Japanese. By reading and rereading these limited sources and collecting fragments of the stories of the two countries, Italy and Japan, intertwined in her life, I tried to get closer to her,” added Keiko Ichiguchi. “I hope I have succeeded in guiding readers on a path of discovery of this extraordinary woman, just as we did.”

In bookstores, the story of Otama Kiyohara in comics, Japanese painter who brought oriental art to Sicily

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