Kamishibaï (紙芝居 in Japanese) means “paper theater”. It is a narrative technique created in Japan, a sort of travelling theater that was originally used by storytellers on the street; they told children their stories while sliding illustrated cards in a wooden castelet called butaï. Every card stages an act or a scene of the story. On the front of the card the image is displayed, while the back of the card contains a short and simple text.

The multilingual Kamishibaï is both an enchanting and playful means of storytelling and a powerful educational tool to learn reading, writing, oral and artistic expression. In addition, it encourages communication and cooperation between the children, both during the creation and after the performance. It can be used at all levels, from nursery school onwards. It can be used in schools as well as in libraries, leisure centres,  or even by health professionals such as speech therapists.

To learn more about this tool, watch our video on the history of Kamishibaï.

Launched in 2015, the Plurilingual Kamishibaï Contest has allowed many children and professionals to create kamishibaïs integrating a diversity of languages. Get inspired by the most beautiful creations viewable in the Plurilingual Kamishibaï Gallery!

Since 2018, Dulala offers to different structures around the world the possibility to organize their own contest through the Kamilala network!

Dulala has created a free digital application for Dulala members to let them discover multilingual kamishibai interweaving several languages, including different sign languages, from here and elsewhere.

At the end of each story, you will find games to play with the children, to have fun with words, to investigate the languages that surround us and to create links with our common language, French.

 Our app is extremely simple to use in class. Simply open it with Internet connection and verify the setting of resources at the bottom of the page. Once the download is complete, you can log off the internet, and keep browsing on the app as long as you don’t leave the page!

Les Langues de chat (The Cat’s Tongues)

Discover the Kamishibaï « Les Langues de Chat » (The Cat’s Tongues), and the worksheets that come with it!

Mais où est passée la couronne de Nya-Nya ? (Where has Nya-Nya’s crown gone?)

Discover the winning Kamishibaï of the 2016 edition of the Contest and its worksheets!

Soup Joumou 

The winning Kamishibaï of the 2017 contest and its worksheets!