Publishing label Emon EMON EDITION releases dress artist Karen’s first picture book for adults, The Garden of Tears

Publishing label Emon EMON EDITION is selling The Garden of Tears, the first picture book for adults by dress artist Karen, through its official online store from May 1, 2026. The Garden of Tears is the first work in a new approach that expands dress expression into the form of a book. The book layers illustrations with dressmaking techniques and the meanings behind them, including embroidery, draping, ink, dyes extracted from flowers, expressions created by dissolving fabric through opal processing, and the wavering quality of hand stitching in contrast to the orderly precision of machine sewing. By connecting the textures born from materials, methods, and stitching with the characters’ emotional pain and shifting feelings, the work attempts to blur the boundary between illustration and dress, linking the world of the picture book with reality. Each material and technique is tied to the story, including Sugiharagami, a traditional craft paper from Hyogo used to form the flowers, as well as Japanese painting materials, dye ingredients, and their places of origin. Even the act of turning the pages is designed as part of the narrative experience. The story is set in the Garden of Tears, a place between the end of the day and dreams. It is a quiet night world filled with mist, where blue flowers sway under the moonlight. The garden’s guardian, the Flower Keeper; a caterpillar wrapped in a cocoon; a large ox with a wounded horn; and three animals carrying emotional wounds wander into the garden. The Garden of Tears is a story that quietly stays beside adults who work hard to live each day in society while carrying fatigue, wounds, anxiety, and troubles that are difficult to put into words. At the root of Karen’s dresses are the romanticism embedded in the production process and a gaze that sees even the anxieties, worries, and wounds people experience in society as forms of beauty. Her dresses are not merely garments that decorate the body. They overlap with the wearer’s life and emotions, becoming a source of emotional support. Sugiharagami handmade by craftspeople using techniques that date back to the Nara period, fabric petals singed over candle flames, and a moon painted with historic Japanese pigments beside incense and lantern light: the beauty and emotion found in these production details are not mere staging, but also a philosophy for quietly connecting with people’s hearts. The Garden of Tears invites readers to notice small happinesses that are often overlooked in daily life, and to accept what may seem like weakness, anxiety, or wounds as part of the beauty and individuality that only that person possesses. In the book, the beauty embedded in the production process and the artist’s gaze toward life are expanded into the form of a book. The work also grew from the artist’s own experience of loss. Having closely observed people living with wounds in society and having lost her beloved mother, the artist has carried these experiences deep within her creative practice since her mid-teens. In the book, the reader’s viewpoint is represented by a caterpillar wrapped in a cocoon. Its form reflects the artist’s own state of mind at the time, as well as her wish to move forward and face the outside world. There is a desire to go out into the world, yet the body cannot move yet. While longing for the sky and moonlight, the caterpillar looks at the world from within, still carrying wounds and anxiety. The book was created as a place where people can gently leave the fatigue, wounds, anxiety, and hard-to-name troubles they feel in society. The Garden of Tears is like a garden of the heart, a place one can enter and leave quietly. In an era of rapid change, the book portrays the tears that flow from what people lose while living in society, and from wounds, anxiety, and pain within relationships, as proof that they once cherished something. It is for those who set their own emotions aside amid busy days, for adults who find it difficult even to stop or cry, and for those who feel they may be trying a little too hard in society. It is a book for oneself, and also a gift to convey feelings to someone important. The Garden of Tears is a book to be handed over like a flower that gently stays beside the heart. Book information: Title: The Garden of Tears; author: Karen; price: 2,420 yen, tax and shipping included; format: hardcover; category: picture book and literature; length: 78 pages; size: A5, 160mm × 222mm; first edition: May 1, 2026; publishing label: Emon EMON EDITION; ISBN/C code: 9784991462405 C0093; printed and bound in Japan. Limited to 150 copies with handwritten serial numbers by the artist, and includes a special bookmark. Sold through the official online store. Karen is a dress artist and picture book author born in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, in 1999. While studying at an art university in Kobe, she trained as an intern at couture brands and other studios. After graduation, she gained experience at a clothing sewing and repair company while personally producing dresses for artists, influencers, and private clients. In 2023, she presented dress works in runway format at Rakuten Tokyo Fashion Week’s Global Fashion Collective. In 2024, she collaborated with Banshu-ori, a traditional industry of Hyogo, and presented dress works on a runway in a space recreating the scenery of a giant moon in Kita-Harima. In 2025, she presented an autumn-winter collection aligned with the season of “kikubare,” developing art pieces, dresses, everyday clothing, and products centered on traditional crafts from Hyogo, her roots. She has been covered by media as a notable brand. From 2026, she began expanding dress expression into the form of books and creating picture books for adults. She also works on well-known IP characters, stage costumes, and bridal dresses. Emon EMON EDITION is a Tokyo-based publishing label operated by DE BLANKK Inc. Centered on images and words born from human hands, stories, paper, bookbinding, craftsmanship, and relationships with regional industries, the label plans, produces, and manages works by artists. It aims to deliver works that become part of people’s lives, remain in the heart over time, and heighten the emotional atmosphere of spaces in society. Rather than content consumed temporarily, the label values books and works that quietly remain within the reader’s life. DE BLANKK Inc. is a production company that creates “emotional assets” that remain in people’s memories, beginning from the concepts of space and time. Based in Tokyo, it operates across fields centered on spatial and temporal experiences, including spatial planning and production, creator brands, publishing, and workshops. Drawing on experience in creating extraordinary spaces in luxury fields in Japan and abroad, the company gives form to stories, philosophies, and accumulated time, delivering value that remains deeply in people’s emotions and lives.