p4
Fusuma design album. 君が代印御襖集 [Kimigayo Shirushi Ofusumashu]. n.p. [193-?]. 29x23cm publisher's cloth with paper label; 34 card leaves with colour patterns, mostly double page. At the end are two cloth samples with designs from the album in different colours. One small mounted stripe sample might be missing. Au$600
This is volume six of a series of catalogues cum pattern books of fusuma - paper for sliding screens. Since I can't find a mention of any other copies I have no clue how many there were, nor whether they appeared over a number of years. Kimigayo is the national anthem - the range or the maker's name I don't know.
Fusuma catalogues are usually pretty blah; postwar catalogues should be avoided by all but sturdy cultural archaeologists. Seems makers didn't have a high opinion of the tastes of someone who would buy their screens ready made. This one is the only exception I've seen so far. Some is bland but a lot is high class and chic in the neo-neo-rimpa style, ie the reworking of tasteful luxurious antiquity inspired by the turn of the century work of neo-rimpa designers like Korin, Sekka, Nosaburo et al.
The printing is outstanding and as usual with such stuff, hard to photograph: the aged gold and silver, heavy raised textures, overprinting, embosssing ... need to be seen in the right light. Very Kyoto and far from the brazen tizz of Tokyo and Osaka. Until we find, at the very end, the stamp of the Yamaguchi Hyoguten of Shibuya, Tokyo. Hyoguten usually translates as mounting store - a business that makes scrolls, screens and sliding screens. There are now Yamaguchi Hyoguten everywhere except Shibuya it seems. I don't know whether any of them are related. Still, I insist the design and printing belong to Kyoto.
Thoroughly Censored
Soma Jiro. 変態処方箋 [Hentai Shohosen] Selection of Abnormal Documents. Tokyo, Kaichosha 1930 (Showa 5). 19x14cm publisher's illustrated fawn cloth printed in red, yellow and black (some browning and smudging), printed card slipcase. Quite poxed inside but I'm sure no-one wants to read this filth so it won't be noticed. I have seen this singular spotting in another copy, I suspect some unwanted particles in a batch of paper. sold
A censored copy. While the colophon seems to claim this is the first printing it isn't. It is dated July and August for printing and publication dates while what might be the first printing is dated the 24th and 29th of June. That has coarser cloth and thicker paper.
According to Hakkin Hon (banned books): Bessatsu Taiyo, the book was banned four days before publication and 295 of the 1000 copies produced were seized.
And I found another note on this book that tells us that 38 printings appeared within four months - with 25% of the text blanked out and at least one all blank page. Indeed page 508 is, not quite blank but columns of dots. Many other pages have columns of dots.
But this is all a muddle because the copy dated 29th June is also censored and page 508 is also columns of dots while the other pages I compared are untouched. I haven't done a page by page comparison.
I have traced but not seen a claimed 38th edition but nothing between one and 38. It makes sense now; they are all, however many there are, first editions.
This substantial classic of the ero-guro-nansensu (erotic grotesque nonsense). Hentai Shohosen might translate as 'A Prescription for Perverts'. Drugs, sex toys, punishment, cannibalism and a list of everyday items used by foreign women for masturbation appear among the chapters. So I'm told. Thank goodness I can't read it.
What I really want to know is who did the cheerful cover - one that could double for a book on Japanese motherhood - and box/title page. Designer's names are often tucked away in dim corners but I can't find it.
Hakkin Hon (Banned Books) I p.134
Japanese Shell Tox poster. Shell Tox. n.p. 193-? 77x50cm colour lithograph with metal strips top and bottom and hanging loop at the top. A nice copy. Au$475
Heavy weaponry has been brought in for Japan's war with bugs: that spray pump is no longer a gun, it's a tank. The stalwart armed figure appears everywhere in Shell Tox advertising around the world but that rampant tank seems peculiar to Japan. This is a shop poster with hanging strips. It's on better paper than usual: many Japanese lithograph posters are on heavy paper like this but are liable to become brown and brittle.
Kon Wajiro & Yoshida Kenkichi. モデルノロヂオ : 考現学 [Moderunorojio - Kogengaku]. (Modernologio on the cover). Tokyo, Shun'yudo 1930 (Showa 5). 26x20cm, publisher's decorated cloth blocked in white, red and black (spine fairly rubbed); 361pp, profusely illustrated throughout, a few photo or colour plates. Edges browned, a second hand copy showing signs of being well read but certainly acceptable. sold
First printing. This is an extraordinary book; the gospel of Modernology. Kon and Yoshida have compiled an encyclopaedia, surely unsurpassed, of the apparently ordinary, of the people of Tokyo, fit to provoke unseemly enthusiasm in theoreticians and urban planners ever since. I gather that their thesis - born out of watching the people of Tokyo begin to rebuild after the 1923 earthquake and fire - is that those who do the planning, designing and building know nothing of what people actually do, what they own and how they use those things ... how they live and who they are.
The cover, signed Ken, and a lot of the illustrations are by Yoshida who has re-spelled his name on the cover for the sake of the design. The more I find out about Yoshida the more interesting he gets. I'm starting to think he was, to Kon, what Braque was to Picasso.
Exposition - Hokkaido 1931. 国産振興北海道拓殖博覧会記念写真帖 [Kokusan Shinko Hokkaido Takushoku Hakurankai Kinen Shashin Jo]. Hokkaido Takushoku Hakurankai, 1931 (Showa 6). 27x37cm publisher's patterned silk, cord ties (browning around the edges); title page, photo illustrations on 35 leaves of heavy gloss paper, 12 pages of text and a plan. sold
A luxurous celebration, with exemplary printing, of the 1931 Hokkaido Colonization Exposition. Had you heard of it before now? Me neither. Thankfully the important old men who always head such books don't take up too much space and it gets more interesting the further we go in. What's wonderful is the number of pavilions that might have come straight out of the pages of the exposition volume of the Gendai Shogyo Bijutsu Zenshu - the Complete Commercial Artist - of 1928-30. Either the same designers were at work or the organisers handed out copies of the book and said, "go for your life."
At the very end we find what seem to have been the big draws for the 600,000 plus visitors: the human cannonball, the world's fattest woman, and dancing girls.
Advertising and packaging. Ozo. Tonanso Kokoku-bu. Two albums with mounted examples of advertising, packaging, pamphlets, posters, stationery, etc, etc, etc, from the Tonanso Advertising Department. v.p. 1931 to 1934. Two card albums 30x23cm, lettered by hand and numbered 1 and 2; each bulging with mounted examples. 1: 35 leaves, removal from one page. 2: 89 leaves, removal from one opening and one leaf, a couple of other items with some damage, some of it purposeful, eg a piece clipped from each of the large posters. Binding pins of the first album separated by the strain of the heavy cardboard boxes. Au$3000
A wondrous collection; it even includes a full size rubbing of a carved kanban - shop sign - on drafting tissue (94x68cm). This is an education in just how much design, printing and paper engineering goes into getting your product into every home in the country. From the seals that go on packets to letterheads, to promotional postcards, through to a couple of large posters (94x62cm) and that kanban. And packets, packages, boxes ... With these albums you could have Stomachic Ozo back on the market in no time.
Tonanso was the parent company of Ozo - an ointment for every skin, every surface, malady ever suffered by humankind - and Stomachic Ozo which likewise cured every internal malady. Ozo for skin is still made, by another company. Though it now only cures a handful of skin problems, I read somewhere that it still has diehard fans despite the drawback of staining clothes. Almost needless to say: the packaging and advertising are dull dull dull.
From what I can find out, which isn't much, Ozo ointment went on the market in the mid twenties. The current makers have cut any connection with quackery in the past and give no history of their product.
Izumi Keiji [ed]. ネオ デカメロン [Neo Dekameron] Neo Decameron on the cover. Tokyo, Bunshodo 1931 (Showa 6). 18x11cm publisher's decorated cloth blocked in white, printed card slipcase; 49 plates (one colour) from various sources. A nice copy. Au$200
First edition. A pleasing example of the ero-guro-nansu (erotic-grotesque-nonsense) craze of the early showa period. This is a stylish gathering of salacious pieces that would normally appear in pulp magazines. What caught my eye is the piece which sort of translates as 'The Electric Artificial Maiden's Secret Room' which sums up the whole notion of ero-garu-nansu. This jostles with sex murder in the Shanghai British Concession and plenty more. The illustrations are pinched from louche sources, mostly European I'd say.
Neo Decameron it may be but there are 21 stories, not ten. Worldcat finds no copy.
Hakkin Hon (Banned Books) I p.170
Tanoe [or Tanoue or Tanouye] Yoshiya. 田上義也建築画集 [Tanoe Yoshiya Kenchiku Gashu]. Tokyo, Kensetsusha 1931. 27x19cm publisher's printed wrapper, illustrated card slipcase (this marked and a bit worn but solid); 110pp, photo illustrations, renderings and plans. Rather good. Inscribed and signed by Tanoe to artist, later folklorist, and dogged communist Hashiura Yasuo who gets a passing mention in the book. Au$1850
Tanoe began his career working for Wright on the Imperial Hotel - from 1919 to 1923. He then headed off to Hokkaido and is now an architectural hero of the island. The prairie style is evident in some of these early houses but no more than Japan is evident in the prairie style. I read somewhere that for one of the buildings in this book he kept his original plan rather than the compacted plan that was actually built. This was so that his sense of space was preserved.
I think the rest of this Artistes Nouveaux series - maybe seven titles in all - are all painters including three Europeans: Matisse, Vlaminck and Chagall.
Worldcat finds no copies outside Japan and it's not common in Japan.
Catalogue - fire engines. Nihon shobo-ki seizo kabushikigaisha. 日本式消防ポンプ [Nihonshiki Shobo Ponpu]. The company 1932 (Showa 7). 26x19cm publisher's illustrated wrapper; 9 leaves printed on one side, photo illustrations. A chomp from the top edge. Au$150
A catalogue of proper fire engines. This is when the last fireman down the pole, struggling into his boots, tenaciously grips the last rung of the ladder as he flaps like a flag behind the speeding engine. There is as well as the standard engines, a nifty little run-about, a motor trike and some handy accessories.
Seems not much survives of the Japan Firefighting Machinery Co now but a few small pumps and a much prized three wheeler in fire museums. I found none of their catalogues in any library.
Kawakami Sumio. 変なリードル [Henna Ridoru] Kawakami's Henna Reader. Tokyo, Hangaso 1934 (Showa 9). 19x13 publisher's illustrated dark green wrapper printed in white and darker green; 16pp woodcut printed. Au$400
Kawakami's work is charming, simple to the point of naive so of course it isn't. Kawakami nursed a nostalgia for a time he did not experience. I'm sure there's word for that which isn't nationalism, xenophobia or popularism. In his case it was the Meiji enlightenment and the confusion of westernisation that fascinated him, particularly primers for children. Here is his. Henna translates as strange or weird; they were all weird but Kawakami is purposeful.
*These pictures of the contents have been stolen from somewhere else; I didn't want to squash this nice fresh copy to photograph the inside. This copy is better.
Fashion. モード Mode : Coats. Tokyo, Modosha 1934 (Showa 9). 31x11cm publisher's colour illustrated wrapper; 32pp including wrappers; illustrated throughout, six pages colour on heavier paper, each with the pattern on the back. Titled in Japanese if you start at the right end and in English if you start at the wrong end but paginated from the western end. A bit used. Au$175
Mode looks to be taken direct from a Paris journal but I haven't found an exact match. There were a lot of them. Since these models' legs look to be about shoulder height for an average Japanese woman it's hard to see these coats translated into Japanese. But the days of Meiji women looking uncomfortable and frumpish in western frocks were long gone. Come to that, the average height of a French woman wasn't much more and, come to that, high fashion is not meant for the average person.
Wada Sanzo. 色名総鑑 (増訂版) [Shikimei Sokan (Zoteiban)]. Tokyo, Hakubisha 1935 (Showa 10). 19x11mm publisher's cloth case with 171 mounted colour samples on 57 accordian folding leaves; and card bound book; 182,8pp. Colour samples named in Japanese, English and occasionally French or German; table of multi language lists of colour names. Less than usual offsetting, rather good in original printed card case with two folds repaired. sold
Second edition, enlarged and revised, of Wada's first serious attempt at colour nomenclature published in 1931. I can tell you there are a few more pages and eleven more colour chips in this edition. There seem to be significant changes in the text volume but I can't read them. Several colours have changed - that is the hue, tint or shade, not the name - and seem to this untrained eye to accord better with their names, though I would still pick an argument with his 'fawn'.
Wada, though at the top of the art ladder in Japan, insisted on pursuing new directions and founded the Japan Standard Color Association - now the Japan Color Research Institute - in 1927. In these early years science, art and aesthetics went hand in hand.
Architecture. Kenchiku Kenkyukai. 和洋建築設計実例編 [Wayo Kenchiku Sekkei Jitsurei-hen]. Osaka, Kenchiku Kenkyukai 1936. 27x20cm publisher's printed boards; 51 folding plans, elevations, measured drawings; a few photo illustrations. A little browning. Au$225
A reprint, first published in 1934, this is a thoroughly useful book from the Architectural Research Association. Enlarge the plans and you could build straight out of the book. Japanese and western are still differentiated and you can choose from ten houses, small school houses, or small apartments.
Worldcat finds no copies outside Japan and it's not so common in Japan.
Koishi Kiyoshi. 撮影・作画の新技法 [Satsuei, Sakuga no Shingiho]. Tokyo, Genkosha 1936 (Showa 11). 20x16cm publisher's decorated cloth and printed card case; b/w photo illustrations and diagrams throughout. Box browned, light spots on the cream front cover; rather good. sold
First edition of Koishi's new techniques of photography - double exposures, under exposures, over exposures, montage, photograms, asymmetry ... all the tricks of a determined avantist.
Onchi Koshiro designed this book. He designed several of Genkosha's photography books including, I presume, his own, and usually made them open right to left.
Theatres. Kenchiku Kenkyusha. 興行場 [Kogyojo]. Tokyo, Kenchiku Kenkyusha 1936 (Showa 11). 19x13cm publisher's printed wrapper; 72pp, photo illustrations, plans etc. sold
Kenchiku Keikaku Sosho 4 - Architectural Planning Series 4 - devoted to theatres by the Architectural Research Society. There's quite a lot packed into this small book: Japanese theatres at the beginning, then a look around the world, then entrants for the 1930 Ukrainian State Theatre competition. Nothing was built but Japanese architects were surprised, maybe pleased, maybe not, when Kawakita Renshichiro placed ahead of Gropius, Bel Geddes, Polzig, Breuer, and other luminaries.
Worldcat finds only the NDL entry for number two in the series.
Eugene Sanger and Ota Saburo. ロケット航空工學 [Roketto Koku Kogaku]. Tokyo, Hakuyo Shoin 1944. 22x16cm publishers cloth and dustwrapper; diagrams throughout. Expected browning, a rather good copy. Au$150
First edition. Eugene Sanger's rocket aeronatics (Raketen-Flugtechnik; 1933) translated into Japanese at about the same time a lithoprint version - but no translation - was printed in the US. And just before the V-1 jet and V-2 rocket bombardments began.
This apparently was Sanger's university thesis, rejected as too fanciful. Rockets as weapons in Japan of course were nothing new and rockets going into space were nothing new but I can't find any serious work in Japan earlier than this.
The book opens right to left which misled someone at the bindery who properly inserted the title page the way it should be, making it upside down. I don't know whether all copies are like this, the only other title page I've seen is the third edition and it's the right way up.
Worldcat finds no copy outside Japan.
And note that the translator is not Ota Saburo the artist/illustrator, just as the author of the first Japanese publication on the atom bomb is not Takeo Takei the artist/illustrator.
Hearse. Photograph of a gentleman and a fine Japanese shinto hearse - miyagata. mid c20th. 24x30cm photographic print. Au$80
Stop fretting over whether that man is on the wrong side of the coffin. Look at the hearse. I'd be happy to be carried to the furnace in that mobile shrine. After the advent of the car, as the 20th century drove on, the hearse devolved from the display case on wheels it had been to being little more than a stretch limo for the terminally lazy. Modern versions of these miyagata shinto hearses persist but they look like over-pimped slide on campers on the back of a ute.
I wonder about the location; it doesn't look a neighbourhood where many people would be able to afford this stylish a send off. But weddings and funerals are occasions for crippling expenses; it's only births that we skimp on.
