Kazuo Oga (男鹿 和雄) is an art director and background artist for many Studio Ghibli anime films. This is his first art book which contains the background paintings for several titles, namely Letters, My Neighbour Tororo, Only Yesterday and Pompoko.

Most of the illustrations are water paintings of Japanese countryside, idyllic setups for imaginary worlds. The art speaks for itself.

About half of the book writeup with two interviews with Oga Kazuo, commentary with Isao Takahata (co-founder of Studio Ghibli) and an interview with Hayao Miyazaki, all in Japanese. On these pages are also printed with background sketches of more natural settings, including traditional Japanese houses.

This is a great collection to the other Studio Ghibli art books around.

Here are direct links to the book:
Amazon Japan | CDJapan.co.jp

If you buy from the links, I get a little commission that helps me get more books to feature.

Here's the Amazon Japan buying guide for your reference.