What Is ‘Beautiful’?

What Is ‘Beautiful’?
Tamon Yahagi and Tsuta

168 mm x 130 mm
256 pages
JPY 1,800
ISBN 9784790717713
Pub date: July 2022

One day, the author’s eight-year-old daughter asked an innocent question: “What is ‘beautiful’?” This book started as his attempt to explain that in the form of a letter. Thirteen dialogues between a Kyoto-based book designer and his elementary school daughter, exploring the world’s secrets. “Truth and goodness are often in conflict, but beauty makes no enemies.” – Shuntarō Tanikawa, poet

Reviews
“I came across a rare book. Here is a simple but mighty beauty, there is love, there is truth. When a person is touched by beauty in the true sense of the word, his or her words become poetry and philosophy at the same time. Not only that, they become a hymn of praise, a confession of the world's sufficiency to be loved, a proclamation of eternity. This is a book that conveys the mystery of existence.” ―Eisuke Wakamatsu, critic

“I sit back and listen to the happy sound of life on this earth, and chew on it. This book, which shares those sounds with us, has made me feel completely tender.” ―Yo Hitoto, musician

“Fresh and powerful writing, as if freshly born from the center of life” ―FUDGE

“A serious and beautiful song of self-questioning, a dance dedicated to God, and at the same time, a record of a family's beautiful love. ” ―Kura Sasara, Poet

Table of Contents
Introduction

Kathmandu
Rivers
Walls
Plates
Gardens
Fruits
Graves
Letters
Stones
People
Fire
Songs
Words

Afterword

Keywords
Kyoto, Yokohama, India, Nepal, design, book, picture, truancy, withdrawal, father, mother, daughter

Media Coverage
NHK, Hokkaido Shimbun, Kyoto Shimbun, Kanagawa Shimbun, Nishinippon Shimbun, Weely Dokusho-jin

Author Information
Tamon Yahagi
Born in Yokohama in 1980, he has been traveling around India and Nepal every year since he was 9 years old, quit school in the first year of junior high school, and started drawing with a pen. In 2012, he moved to Kyoto and started Ambooks, a publishing label. He has been expanding his activities to make books and their surroundings more comfortable.

He is the author of Books and Work (Kawade Shobo Shinsha), The Edge of Books (Shunposha), Tamon no Indo Damon (Mishimasha), and co-author of Tara Books: A Small Publisher in India, Making Books Straight (Genkosha) and Gifting Books (Miwansha).

Tsuta
She is a member of Akichi no Gakko (School of Akichi). Recently, she is addicted to making newspapers and rakugo (comic storytelling). Her favorite rakugo performer is Shunputei Ichinosuke. She has been watching the movie “Otoko wa Tsuraiyo” since she was three years old, and dreams of one day seeing Torajiro Kuruma again. She is the daughter of Tamon Yahagi.