VOLUME 21
GIFU
Shirakawa-go Gassho Village, Takayama Old Town & Nagara River Cormorant Fishing
Past ten o'clock on the Nagara, full dark, and the cormorant masters are working by firelight alone. An iron basket of burning pine knots hangs from the bow of each flat-bottomed boat, throwing a copper light across the water as the usho, in his straw koshimino skirt and lacquered kazaori-eboshi hat, lets out a dozen tethered birds. The river is six centuries deep in this practice; the night carries the smell of pitch smoke. Gifu pulls inland and upward from here. In Seki, before sunrise, a swordsmith strikes folded steel against a low anvil while the forge glows behind him, a craft the town has kept since the Kamakura era. In Mino, kozo bark soaks in cold mountain water before it is laid out as washi thin enough to read lamplight through. Higher in the valleys, Gujo Hachiman dances at midnight under strung paper lanterns, the Gujo Odori circle moving slowly around a wooden yagura through the short summer dark. In Takayama, the karakuri puppets ride out on lacquered festival floats, their small heads turning on hidden silk cords. Forty pages here: a cormorant resting on the gunwale, a chochin lantern in autumn grass, a sheet of washi held to the light, a karakuri head mid-turn, a strand of hoshigaki on a balcony. The river carries it.
“From firelit river to thatched mountain valley.”
- 40 original Gifu Prefecture illustrations
- Single-sided pages to prevent bleed-through
- 8.5 x 8.5 inch square format
- A mix of detailed and breathable compositions
- Brief editorial introduction to Gifu
- Anyone with an interest in Japan, its mountain country, and its craft traditions
- Adults who use coloring for relaxation and quiet focus
- A considered gift for friends and family with a love of Japan
The Gifu coloring book is Volume 21 of Sora Mikami's Prefectures of Japan series, a 47-volume collection that explores Japan one prefecture at a time. It gathers 40 original black-line illustrations of Gifu. It draws on Shirakawa-go Gassho Village, Takayama Old Town, and Nagara River Cormorant Fishing, alongside the everyday scenes Gifu considers its own.
You will find Shirakawa-go Gassho Village, Takayama Old Town, and Nagara River Cormorant Fishing, together with the landmarks, food, and quiet corners that give Gifu its character. The compositions move between detailed, intricate pages and calmer, more breathable ones, so there is something for every mood.
Yes. The book mixes detailed illustrations with more open, breathable designs, so beginners and experienced colorists alike can settle in. The large 8.5 x 8.5 inch square pages give you plenty of room to work, and every page is printed single-sided.
Colored pencils, markers, and gel pens all work beautifully. Because every illustration is printed single-sided on white paper, you can use heavier media without bleed-through onto another design. Slip a sheet of card behind the page if you want to be sure.
It is Volume 21 of a planned 47, one book for every Japanese prefecture. The volumes can be coloured in any order, and together they sketch the whole country one place at a time. Gifu sits in the Chubu region of Japan.
