VOLUME 33
OKAYAMA
Korakuen Garden, Okayama Castle & Kurashiki Bikan
Korakuen was completed in 1700, one of Japan's three great gardens. Its lawn is unusually wide for the form, opening from the teahouse veranda toward a borrowed view of Okayama Castle's matte-black donjon across the Asahi river. The garden took fourteen years to lay out for the Ikeda lord and has been kept, with interruptions, ever since. Trimmed hedges, a crane aviary, a small plum grove, the long sightline back to the donjon's gilded shachihoko: an arrangement made for the eye to wander rather than arrive. Pottery is the prefecture's other long patience. The climbing kilns at Imbe have been fired for more than a thousand years, producing the iron-red, unglazed stoneware called Bizen-yaki, its colour drawn out by ash and flame rather than pigment. A tea bowl from these kilns carries the kiln's mark on its foot and the potter's thumb in its rim. Between garden and kiln lies the rest. The namako lozenges of Kurashiki's canal walls. The indigo selvedge of Kojima, where Japan's denim industry sells worldwide. Bitchu Matsuyama on its ridge above Takahashi, the highest original wooden castle still standing. A muscat cluster, a white peach, a willow leaf on water. Forty studies, page by page. Take your time with each.
“From the Seto shore to the kilns at Imbe, one page at a time.”
- 40 original Okayama 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 Okayama
- Anyone with an interest in Japan, its gardens, castles, and craft traditions
- Adults who use coloring for relaxation and quiet focus
- A considered gift for friends and family with a love of Japan
The Okayama coloring book is Volume 33 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 Okayama. It draws on Korakuen Garden, Okayama Castle, and Kurashiki Bikan, alongside the everyday scenes Okayama considers its own.
You will find Korakuen Garden, Okayama Castle, and Kurashiki Bikan, together with the landmarks, food, and quiet corners that give Okayama 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 33 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. Okayama sits in the Chugoku region of Japan.
