VOLUME 19
YAMANASHI
Mount Fuji, Chureito Pagoda & Koshu Wine
Yamanashi is not Mt. Fuji. Fuji is the smallest thing about it, a single cone on the southern border that the prefecture happens to live behind. Turn around and the country opens out: the Kofu basin laid in vine rows, the Akaishi range walling the west, the Arakawa cutting white channels through Shosenkyo's granite. This is Takeda Shingen's mountain country, governed for centuries from Kofu castle under the red banner of the Takeda cavalry, and the inheritance shows in the food. Hoto, the flat wheat noodles simmered in miso with kabocha and root vegetables, was campaign cooking before it was home cooking, cast-iron pots set straight on the coals. The Koshu valley around Katsunuma is the oldest wine region in Japan, its thin-skinned amethyst grapes trained overhead on pergolas the locals call tana. At Oshino Hakkai, eight spring-fed ponds rise through old crater silt, water so clear the carp seem suspended in air. In the workshops of Kofu, deerskin is lacquered in indigo and cinnabar to make Inden pouches, a craft four hundred years unchanged. Forty pages here. Fuji is in some of them. The rest belong to the country at its back.
“Forty pages drawn at the foot of the Alps.”
- 40 original Yamanashi 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 Yamanashi
- Anyone with an interest in Japan, its culture, and its mountain landscapes
- Adults who use coloring for relaxation and quiet focus
- Fans of detailed line art and Johanna Basford-style mindful coloring
- A considered gift for friends and family with a love of Japan
The Yamanashi coloring book is Volume 19 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 Yamanashi. It draws on Mount Fuji, Chureito Pagoda, and Koshu Wine, alongside the everyday scenes Yamanashi considers its own.
You will find Mount Fuji, Chureito Pagoda, and Koshu Wine, together with the landmarks, food, and quiet corners that give Yamanashi 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 19 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. Yamanashi sits in the Chubu region of Japan.
