The Japanese cross stitch master, Makoto Oozu has produced a series of books in the past, such as “Makato’s Cross-Stitch Super Collection” which is found on the shelves of most cross stitchers worldwide. That’s why, when he released a new book in Japan, I had to get myself a copy!

This super compendium of miniature cross stitch patterns is 200 pages thick, with new content from 2017 such as an A4 world map, and country specific stitches, as well as the reprints of three of Makoto’s previous books; the Japanese only out of print “My Stitch Book”, “Makato’s Cross-Stitch Super Collection” and “Mega Mini Cross Stitch: 900 Super Awesome Cross Stitch Motifs“.
Makoto decided to put together this new book as he’d been requested by hundreds of people for copies of his out of print books. This means that the book contains over 2000 patterns! Many of which you would have seen before in his previous books, but he’s put together 100 new patterns and there are 300 from his Japanese only book too, meaning this is still a fantastic book to pick up.

For Makoto, one of the biggest issues with his previous books was the lack of color, and frankly, I agree. For a beginner, in particular, patterns need to be easy to read, and the dizzying array of icons on a black and white pattern is super confusing. In this new book, not only is every pattern printed in full-color glory, but the patterns are too, meaning an easy to follow pattern for beginners.
However, the book is mostly in Japanese, meaning reading the instructions for beginners might be a bit complicated. However there are pictures, and in a book of 200 pages there are a total of 9 in Japanese, so it really isn’t a problem for most people and is still a great collection of patterns.

If you fancy picking up the book, you can currently get a copy on the Japanese Amazon for about $20 (as of September 2017). I’m afraid to say we’ve got confirmation from Makoto that it won’t be published outside of Japan, so this is currently the only way you can pick one up.
In fact, we spoke to Makoto about a few things, such as the Japanese cross stitch trends, you should check out my interview with Makoto Oozu.
 
And finally, I leave you with a quote from the author himself about his new book:

If you compare it to rice, it’s like a book with raw egg, red ginger and miso soup in a special rice bowl.

Makoto Oozu