“A Tale of Two Dragons” Wales Japan Collaboration 2025
Welsh illustrators Liz Fenwick and Valériane Leblond visited Osaka in November 2025 to work on an cross-cultural project that saw a Welsh dragon meet its Japanese counterpart in a new bilingual children’s story presented through the medium of kamishibai or paper theatre. “A Tale of Two Dragons: Connecting Wales and Japan Through Stories for Children,” brought them together with Yoshifumi Hasegawa, a leading Japanese author of books for children to create a unique narrative exploring the meeting between Y Ddraig Goch, the Welsh Red Dragon, and the blue Japanese dragon, a traditional water creature.
The artists met in a series of online workshops before the Welsh team joined Yoshifumi Hasegawa, Yasuko Doi and Naoko Takano his the studio-gallery in Osaka where the visitors were treated to a kamishibai performance of one of Mr Hasegawa’s humorous stories.
As part of the visit, Liz and Valériane facilitated a picture-book making workshop with children and met with local members of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators in Kobe where they also visited the Children’s Book Forest, a remarkable library designed by the renowned architect Tadao Ando. The project culminated in a public event at at the Osaka Prefectural Library where the collaborative story was presented.
LAF and WLE partnered with two significant Japanese literary organisations on this project: the International Institute for Children’s Literature, Osaka (IICLO) represented by Yasuko Doi and the Japan Board on Books for Young People (JBBY) represented by Naoko Takano. The initiative was supported by Wales Arts International and British Council Wales as part of Wales Japan Year 2025.
