Akita University of Art Master’s 2nd-year student ZHOU Jinjing has received the Honorable Mention award in the Foundation for Ainu Culture’s “2021 Picture Book Contest.”

The Foundation for Ainu Culture aims to promote public awareness of Ainu culture and traditions, which are still not well understood in Japan.

The Foundation’s Picture Book Contest offers the chance to educate children about the richness of Ainu culture from an early age. The contest collects submissions of original drafts of picture books on the subject of Ainu culture, which upon publication are distributed to preschools and kindergartens across Hokkaido.

Zhou’s research theme at the Graduate School of Transdisciplinary Arts is “Visual design for teaching children about multicultural coexistence: Ainu and Nanai cultures.”