Eiko Kadono

Eiko Kadono (角野栄子 Kadono Eiko) is the author of the picture book Majo no Takkyūbin, known also as Kiki's Delivery Service, the title of its anime adaptation.

She was born in Tokyo in 1935 and wrote her first books in Brazil in the 1960s. Most of her work is books for children.

She published Kiki in 1985. Kiki (the character) was not particularly good at flying. Kiki's mother would hang bells at the top of every tall tree in town, so that if Kiki were to run into a tree, she could hear it.

The only request Eiko made of Hayao Miyazaki for the anime adaption of her work was that Kiki ring the bells as she left town.