Manga. 漫画はり繪ブック [Manga Hari-e Bukku]. Tokyo, Shojo Kurabu 1933 (Showa 8). 19x27cm publisher's colour illustrated wrapper; 12pp printed in yellow on thick black paper and six loose sheets of colour pop-out figures to be stuck in. Minor signs of use, one loose sheet has lost some of the top margin but not the pop-out pictures. Au$250
Mickey and Betty co-star with other manga favourites in this cute toy book. Some pages are to be decorated with the pre-cut colour figures on the loose sheets, some pages show how to draw and some are just for fun. And all are for needle pictures.
Took me a while but I figured out Betty is spelling Manga Hari-e Book with Mickey's tail.
Posters. 商業美術展ポスター集成 [Shogyo Bijutsuten Posuta Shusei]. Osaka, Shogyo Bijutsu Renmai 1934 (Showa 9). 27x20cm publisher's patterned boards and slipcase printed in orange and black (this fairly rubbed but solid and presentable enough); [5]ll and 104 b/w plates printed on one side. Au$300
Short on colour maybe but still a good exhibition of modern Japanese poster designs mounted by the Commercial Art League (Shogyo Bijutsu Renmai). Designs - not printed or published posters - with artists all identified. Not such a rare book but hard to find in better than revolting condition.
Kawakita Renshichiro & Takei Katso. 構成教育大系 [Kosei Kyoiku Taikei]. Tokyo, Gakko Bijutsu Kyokai Shuppan-bu 1934 (Showa 9). 22x16cm publisher's colour printed boards (a bit spotted with small surface scrapes at the tips); [2], 12 plates (four colour), 520pp, profusely illustrated throughout. Some spotting around the edge; a rather good copy of a vulnerable book. Au$1650
First edition. A textbook in a way but a remarkable and thoroughly modernist one. Much influenced but, I'm told, not slavishly, by the Bauhaus method of teaching, this education in design or composition contains both the philosophy and practice of Kawakita's Shinkenchiku Kogei Gakuin (School of New Architecture and Design) successor to his Seikatsu Kosei Kenkyusho (Research Institute for Life Configurations).
Kawakita's success in the Ukraine state theatre competition apparently isolated him even more than he was from the modernist mainstream. I've read that this book caused some unhappiness among cutting edge architects who complained that it was too abstract but was hugely popular among art teachers. This might explain why the book seems so hard to find: a bunch of black thumbed, paint spattered art students soon put paid to any book. Worldcat finds only the NDL entry.
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.
Advertising. Katsumi Tsuji. 傑作廣告圖案大集成 [Kessaku kokoku zuan daishusei]. Tokyo, Kobunsha 1934. 27x20cm publisher's illustrated cloth, illustrated slipcase; 320pp with hundreds of illustrations (eight pages in colour, the rest in varying monochromes). A mildly fatigued copy, used but nothing in particular. Au$350
A splendid compendium of modern advertising layout and typography; there are examples from Europe and America but fortunately the bulk is Japanese. Both the book cover and the slipcase are pretty smart, the slipcase in particular. The 'AD' design on the cover of the book is a direct link to the Art Directors Club, presumably this is a forerunner of the current Tokyo Art Directors Club.
City Planning. Xinjing or Shinkyo (Changchun) - Manchukuo. 國都新京建設の全貌 [Kokuto Shinkyo Kensetsu no Zenbo]. Shinkyo, Manshukoku Kokumuin Kokuto Kensetsukyoku 1936. Colour printed sheet 54x78cm with colour bird's eye view and panorama on one side; colour plan, smaller b/w photo illustrations and text on the other. Folded as issued, a small knick in a margin, minor signs of use. Au$750
In many ways the new capital of Manchukuo was - is - a planner's dream. Here was an empire building militaristic government wanting to both experiment with all that had been learned about city planning and show the west that not only could they do it, but do it better.
Changchun, a hybrid Chinese-Russian-Japanese railway town, was appointed the new capital, it was renamed, a five year plan for a new city was drawn up under the guidance of Professor Riki (or Toshikata) Sano in 1932, a quick compromise with a competing plan was made, and building was underway in early 1933.
Local interests (ie the Chinese and Manchu population) and business were allowed notional input but the brief was clear: social theory, technology and architecture that made for an efficient colonial capital could be put into place, local self-interest could not. Of course it was not so simple. This was to be a pan-Asian showcase, superior to western, especially colonial western, models - not equal. Confucianism, traditional ritual and Asian racial harmony were to be a central part of the city. What more could any urbanist ask for?
Students of the plan might like to start with Yishi Liu's 2011 doctoral thesis, 'Competing Visions of the Modern;' where Griffin's Canberra plan and Griffin's diagrams for road classification are illustrated beside Xinjing's. By 1936 - when our view of the future city was produced - a lot was still dust and open space but, by the gods, whatever else they learnt from Burley Griffin's Canberra - and it was a lot - about planning a city, they certainly learnt how not to build a city.
What they already knew is what all architects know - by instinct? - to redraw plans to fit what has been built and what is likely to be built. This is, I think, the third or fourth of such views of the new city. There were similar prints in 1933, maybe in 34, and 35. The city was declared open in 1937. I'm yet to see the first but the changes between 1935 and 1936 are noteworthy. The plan is much the same, mildy shrunk, and some buildings in our imaginary bird's eye view may reflect actual building but what becomes clear is that ambition has been scaled back to come closer to what they thought could exist next year. City blocks of large scale housing are now more sparse clumps of bungalows; elaborate Sino-Japanese modernism is plain modernism.
Poster. 大阪優良染織見本市 [Osaka Yuryo Senshoku Mihonichi]. [Osaka 1936?]. Colour poster 77x53cm. Folded, some browning and offsetting; pretty good. Au$400
This sinister warning of looming evil advertises the Osaka textile trade fair. Signed in print by the artist but I can't read it.
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.
Bridges. Portland Cement Association. Architectural Design of Concrete Bridges. Concrete for permanence. Chicago, Portland Cement [1937]. Oblong quarto publisher's printed wrapper; 36pp, photo and other illustrations throughout. Au$60
'Fundamental principles', that is the rules of design - appearance as separate from structure - are succinctly set out and illustrated by recent modern and moderne bridges. Mistakes are shown and corrected in diagrams.
Yamashita Ken'ichi (illustrator). 小学科学絵本 : 石油 [Shogaku Kagaku Ehon : Sekiyu] . Tokyo, Mitsukoshi 1937 (Showa 12). 215x195mm, publisher's boards with mounted illustration, dustwrapper (this used: browned and a bit chipped); colour and b/w illustrations by Yamashita throughout. Some browning here and there. Au$150
This is volume 10 of the 12 volumes series Shogaku Kagaku Ehon - elementary science - devoted to oil. This is a quite exciting and vivid series hidden under dreary dustwrappers so it is natural to discard the dustwrappers immediately. They seemed inexplicable to me until I realised that many of these artists were in disgrace with officials and neither high modernism nor the fanciful were suitable for anyone let alone an impressionable child. The dustwrappers are the book equivalent of thick rimmed glasses and a false moustache. Proof that communists and such troublemaking artistic riff-raff can't be trusted.
Yamashita Ken'ichi (illustrator). 小学科学絵本 : 石炭 [Shogaku Kagaku Ehon : Sekitan] . Tokyo, Mitsukoshi 1937 (Showa 12). 215x195mm, publisher's boards with mounted illustration, dustwrapper (this used: browned and a bit frayed); colour and b/w illustrations by Yamashita throughout. Some browning here and there. Au$125
This is volume 9 of the 12 volumes series Shogaku Kagaku Ehon - elementary science - devoted to coal. This is a quite exciting and vivid series hidden under dreary dustwrappers so it is natural to discard the dustwrappers immediately. They seemed inexplicable to me until I realised that many of these artists were in disgrace with officials and neither high modernism nor the fanciful were suitable for anyone let alone an impressionable child. The dustwrappers are the book equivalent of thick rimmed glasses and a false moustache. Proof that communists and such troublemaking artistic riff-raff can't be trusted.
Yamashita Ken'ichi (illustrator). 小学科学絵本 : 家 [Shogaku Kagaku Ehon : Ie] . Tokyo, Mitsukoshi 1937 (Showa 12). 215x195mm, publisher's boards with mounted illustration, dustwrapper (this used: smudged and a bit frayed); colour and b/w illustrations by Yamashita throughout. Some browning here and there. Au$100
This is volume 8 of the 12 volumes series Shogaku Kagaku Ehon - elementary science - devoted to housing. This is a quite exciting and vivid series hidden under dreary dustwrappers so it is natural to discard the dustwrappers immediately. They seemed inexplicable to me until I realised that many of these artists were in disgrace with officials and neither high modernism nor the fanciful were suitable for anyone let alone an impressionable child. The dustwrappers are the book equivalent of thick rimmed glasses and a false moustache. Proof that communists and such troublemaking artistic riff-raff can't be trusted.
Exhibition - Toyama 1936. 富山市主催日満産業大博覧会協賛会誌 [Toyamashi Shusai Nichiman Sangyo Daihakurankai Kyosankai Shi]. Toyama 1938 (Showa 13). 23x16cm publisher's cloth and card box; numerous photo illustrations, colour plates, folding plans and elevations. A nice copy. Au$650
The official report on the 1936 Japan-Manchuria Great Industrial Exhibition. Though blemished by too many portraits of personages, this is still an excellent record of thirties Japanese expo architecture and design with coloured pictures of posters, advertising, tickets and so on, plans and elevations of buildings, lighting, and photo views. There is also the obligatory Hatsusaburo colour folding birds-eye panorama.
Worldcat finds two copies outside Japan, both in California.
Sugiura Hisui, Takeo Takei, Takeshi Kimata &c. わが子の歴史 [Wagako no Rekishi]. Osaka, Mitsokushi [1939] (Showa 14). 27x19cm publisher's cloth backed boards decorated in gilt and black in mildy worn decorated box; 84pp illustrated in colour throughout by Takei and others; cover design by Sigiura. Partly filled in with pencil, two chubby hands have been traced in ink; occasional browning or offsetting; a remarkably good copy. Au$300
This book was child of the Mitsokushi department store, first published in 1928, reprinted fairly often and presumably updated. One of Takei's illustrations is dated 1934. Who was the titan that came up this genius innovation - the predigested baby album? Does he or she have a shrine in the marketing hall of fame? They - books like this - seem to have popped up round the world in the twenties - were they earlier? This has one foot planted in revoltingly cute of course but, thanks to Takei and a couple of fellow artists, enough pages keep the other foot in stylish and exciting.
Worldcat finds one copy - a 1938 edition at Princeton - and NDL finds two - 1928 and 1936 editions - in Japanese libraries. While doing homework on this I came across a poor - so to speak - descendant: the Blot. For a mere 20,000 yen you get something that looks suspiciously like a leather filofax - if you're old enough to remember the filofax - no cute pictures, no revolting sentiment. Poor kids.
Kawakami Sumio. 工藝 ９６巻 [Kogei no.96]. Tokyo, 1939 (Showa 14). 23x15cm publisher's illustrated wrapper; woodcut and enamel on the cover, [4], colour woodcuts on two leaves, mounted photo plates on 17 leaves, 64pp of text with small illustrations, publisher's adverts. A nice copy in original wax paper wrapper. Au$200
This issue of Kogei (craft) is devoted to Kawakami. His 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 printed Meiji enlightenment and the confusion of westernisation that fascinated him and it is easy to see the models of early Meiji primers for children in his prints.
Kinoshita Circus. 木下大サーカス団 [Kinoshita Dai Sakasu Dan]. n.p. [194-?]. Colour lithograph poster 76x52cm. Au$300
The advertising tax stamp - lower right - dates this between 1942 and 1946; so I'm told. As does the replacement of lions and elephants with a goat. The Kinoshita circus started with the 20th century and is now one of the world's biggest.
Coal mine. 炭礦 [Tanko]. Tokyo, 1940 (Showa 15) Colour poster 53x77cm. A little dusty and frayed around the edges. Au$175
Mines sure came a long way from the hell for the choiceless, the bereft, and the suicidal that Soseki wrote about in 1908. That was a copper mine, I admit, but by 1940 underground workers in coal mines weren't just women and convicts. Unless of course you were forced labour from Manchuria, China, or Korea. Still, all that has nothing to do with the shining, automated, downright pretty, triumph of tidy technology we have here. The artist is K. Homma.
This is from a series of educational posters for schools, Wakamoto Kyoiku Kakezono. This changed my preconceptions about life in a coal mine so I wonder what else they published in the series; I might have to change my mind about a lot of things. I've found no mention of any other posters in the series.
Poster. Sasao (?). 四月三十曰 ... 大東亜戦争完逐翼賛選挙 [... Daitoasenso Kansui Yokusan Senkyo]. n.p. [printed by Biseido Insatsu?1942]. Colour poster 77x54cm. Folded and rumpled, a couple of small nicks; with a neat, mysterious diagram drawn in ink on the back. Signed in print Sasao. Au$600
Election poster for the 1942 general election reminding everyone to get out on April 30, vote for their endorsed candidate and ensure victory in the great Asian war. Though the whole business was meant to ensure that only endorsed Yokusan candidates could run I was surprised to find that more unendorsed than endorsed candidates ran for parliament and quite a few of them were elected. Of course that made no real difference to the running of the government and the war but it must have irked the military.
WESCHER, Herta. Collage. NY, Abrams [1971?]. Quarto, excellent in cloth and dustwrapper; 417pp, 396 illustrations (40 tipped colour). Au$150
First edition in English of this handsome and excellent survey of the first half of the twentieth century. The projected second volume never eventuated.
Laboureur. TONNEAU-RYCKELYNCK, Dominique. Jacque-Emile Laboureur. Musee du Dessin et de l'Estampe Originale 1987. Small square quarto publisher's stiff wrapper (a splodge on the front cover); profusely illustrated, much in colour. Au$100
One of 100 copies with an engraving printed from one of Laboureur's original plates: Pecheurs au carrelet, 1925.
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