Craning the neck, trying to hold the book so both the audience and reader can see it, passing the book so kids can see small illustrations – these are all logistical problems of reading a picture book to more than two or three kids at a time.
Nearly a century ago, a solution was invented in Japan. Kamishibai, literally translated as ‘paper theater,’ is a storytelling format where a series of large cards are placed in a portable wooden frame shaped like a miniature theater stage.
On the front of the cards are illustrations for the audience that follow the narrative. On the back of the cards, facing away from the audience, are the words for the story. Kamishibai quickly caught on, prompting 30,000 urban street performers to emerge by 1938. They biked routes with stops to perform where children would rush outside to catch the stories – like the storytelling version of an ice cream truck.
For many years, kamishibai stayed relegated to Japan. More recently, it has caught on in other countries, with Mexico, India, Australia and others adopting the wooden frames and illustrated cards as a storytelling format while telling stories from their own culture.
San Diego has had kamishibai performances at schools and libraries for 15 years thanks to Write Out Loud, a theater company founded in 2007 to have actors read literature aloud to a live audience.
Walter Ritter, executive director of Write Out Loud, knew children’s literature would be a focus of the organization. However, he did not want copy the traditional children’s book reading as it would limit the actors. He searched online for solutions, coming up empty over and over. Finally, he began searching for new children’s storytelling methods by country, starting with Germany. When he typed in Japan, he finally found his answer.
“It solved all the other problems of reading the children’s books,” Ritter said. Switching from card to card so young children had time to process the images kept their attention while the storyteller was able to speak uninterrupted. “This is a way of telling stories to children that absolutely rivets them. I’ve had so many parents tell me, ‘He stayed still. He listened to that whole story.’ And they are incredulous.”
Nothing demonstrates kamishibai’s growing popularity more than the first in-person World Kamishibai Forum, being held right here in San Diego on Feb. 15-16 at the San Diego Central Library.
Ritter, Donna Tamaki and Tara McGowan, author of “The Kamishibai Classroom,” co-founded the forum in 2019. It has existed online since then, but they are moving it in person this year thanks to sponsors Toshiba, the San Diego Commission for Arts & Culture, The Parker Foundation, the Dr. Seuss Fund, The Conrad Prebys Foundation and the San Diego Central Library.
“The forum exists to encourage that spread, and at the same time to encourage the new countries that are getting involved and the people who are doing it, to adapt kamishibai in their culture, their language, what their population considers a good story,” Ritter said.
Attendees from around the world, and many locals, will learn about the storytelling style and its many applications. Ritter has seen it used in Nepal with public health presentations in remote areas for an illiterate audience without the technology available for a PowerPoint presentation. Write Out Loud hopes teachers and librarians attend who can use skills from the forum for programming.
“This is an exciting way to tell a story, and kids and their parents know that,” said Pamela Brittain, a retired teacher from Southwest High School. Her classroom was one of the first to incorporate Write Out Loud’s kamishibai performances. She grew to appreciate the storytelling form so much that after her retirement, she performs kamishibai at libraries, community schools and even dementia care centers.
“I don’t just read the story. I perform the story,” Brittain explained. Without needing to hold a picture book, she is free to use expressive facial movements, vocal registers, character voices, walk across the stage and gesture with her hands. She feels more in control of the pacing of the story. “The storyteller, I believe, is a much more integral part of kamishibai than if you were just turning a picture book.”
Free to the public, the forum is bringing in visiting artists from Japan and Chile for demonstrations along with workshops on how to develop, illustrate and write stories. There will even be an open mic night where forum attendees will get to try out their kamishibai skills for the first time.
For a full schedule, visit writeoutloudsd.com/world-kamishibai-forum-2025.
TOP PHOTO: The story box is a universal tool for kamishibai’s illustrated cards, while the stories themselves can be adapted to each culture and community.
