The Cabin Company atelier is an abandoned school building in Yufu City, Oita Prefecture. This is where artists Kentaro Abe (b. 1989) and Saki Yoshioka (b. 1988), spend their days creating picture books, paintings, illustrations, and other objet dʼart.

Since the two formed The Cabin Company in 2009, they have published more than forty picture books, many of them highly acclaimed. Notably, Giant Squid Came to Town! (2014, Suzuki Publishing Co., Ltd) won the Readersʼ Choice Award of the 20th Japan Picture Book Award, and in 2023, Melting into the sunset(2024, SHOGAKUKAN Inc.) received the grand prize of the 29th Japan Picture Book Award, and the Sankei Shimbun Award of the 71st Sankei Juvenile Literature Publishing Culture Award. Three years running,
the pairʼs posters were chosen for Childrenʼs Reading Week. The images created by the unique colors and power of expression of these two artists are bound to inspire young readers for many years to come.

The work of The Cabin Company, however, is not limited to picture books. They have undertaken stage art for Obachetta, performed in 2021 by Co. Un Yamada at the New National Theatre Tokyo, and in 2022, designed the character Kekechama for the NHK childrenʼs program, Okaasan to Issho. They also did the cover and illustrations for the Kizu to akuma to koi wo shita! tour pamphlet of singer Aimyon in 2021. Near to home, The Cabin Company installed an enormous art work entitled Chimera-bune in the smoking area
on the shinkansen platform of JR Oita Station as part of OPAM at Platform of Oita Station (2021‒2022), sponsored by the station and Oita Prefectural Art Museum. Chimera-bune went viral on SNS, and gained popularity even among people unfamiliar with either picture books or art.

“The Cabin Companyʼs Grand Picturebook Exhibition: Song of Praise to Children and the Hall” is scheduled to tour public art museums around the country. It will be the largest so far for this artist duo. On display will be picture books, poems, paintings, illustrations, and installations that express the energy and scale of the worlds they create.