Hikobae: 15 Views Beyond Iogi Jean-Gaspard Palenicek 9781836360056

Hikobae is a book collection of comic works on the border between the genres of sociological comics and comics with a poetic value on the theme of everyday life in Japan. The project is a follow-up to the comic book Iogi (2022), in which the same team focused on ordinary life in Tokyo's Suginami district. Iogi was presented at related exhibitions in Japan and the Czech Republic and won several prestigious awards (a bronze medal in the Japan International Manga Award, the Muriel Award for Best Screenplay, Art Award of the City of Pilsen).

In the loose sequel entitled Hikobae, each story focuses on a different region of Japan: from the northern island of Hokkaido to Shimane Prefecture in the southwest of the archipelago, from the mountain peaks of Gunma Prefecture to the seashore of Shikoku Island. The stories deal with the theme of everyday life, far from the stereotypical ideas of the Land of the Rising Sun. The key focus of the book is on the tradition and its transmission: some comics deal with contemporary forms of traditional Japanese crafts, customs or ceremonies (pottery, fishing, the tea ceremony, blueprinting, the traditional sake bio-production).

Hikobae is a result of an exceptional collaboration between the author of the script, Jean-Gaspard Palenicek, who brings the perspective of his experience with life in Japan, and students of the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen under the supervision of Vaclav Slajch. The afterword was written by Pavel Korinek, an acclaimed comic expert and researcher at the Centre for Comics Studies of the CAS.

Jean-Gaspard Palenicek (1978) is a poet, writer, art and film curator, and translator born in Prague, Czech Republic. He has published four literature books and wrote the scripts for the comic book Iogi (awarded Bronze at the 15th Japan International Manga Award Award in 2021). As a translator specialising in texts on art, film and music, he has collaborated with art institutions such as the Grand Palais, the Pompidou Centre, the National Gallery in Prague and the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. He has also given lectures at Sorbonne University Paris, Meiji University, Seijo University and Joshibi University of Art and Design. Vaclav Slajch (1980) is a comic author and illustrator, head of the Media Illustration Studio at the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. In 2010 and 2022, he received the prestigious Muriel comic book award in the Czech Republic, and he has collaborated with a world-famous Czech director Jan Sverak.