Ai Otsuka, a student at Musashino Art University, is contributing illustrations for the serialized novel "The Curious Casebook of Inspector Hanshichi," which will appear in The Japan Times beginning next week.
Otsuka, from Saitama Prefecture, beat out 22 other students at the art university in a competition held by the newspaper to provide the artwork for the Kido Okamoto classic.
A student in the imaging arts and sciences department, Otsuka says she has loved to paint since childhood, although she has not received formal training in painting.
Participants in the competition were invited to provide artwork that matches the atmosphere and theme of the novel. Otsuka said "Hanshichi," a copy of which she borrowed at a library, was the first period novel she has ever read and she enjoyed it.
"I'd like to continue painting illustrations in the future," she said during a visit to The Japan Times office in early November.
For more background and context see the complete introduction to "The Curious Casebook of Inspector Hanshichi: Detective Stories of Old Edo."