Some favourite subjects:
Some favourite subjects:
Metrication. [Toitsu Sa Reta Metoru-ho]. Tokyo, Asahi Graphic 1923 (Taisho 12). Colour poster 53x38cm. Au$90
Handy educational tool for the imminent establishment of the metric system as Japan's official system of measurement. Up until then metric, imperial and traditional measures were legal. It was proposed to make a gradual change over ten years but by the thirties the nationalistic backlash meant that it was all postponed again. And again. The American occupation forces cared nothing for metrics and it was the mid sixties before everybody was up to scratch.
Exhibition - Tokyo 1922. [Heiwa Kinen Tokyo Hakurankai Jimu Hokoku]. Tokyo Fucho 1924 (Taisho 13). Two volumes 26x19cm, publisher's embossed wrappers (browned); 681pp, heaps of illustrations: folding colour plans, architectural elevations and plans, photo plates, etc. Browning and foxing expected from the paper but still a rather good fresh copy. Au$1350
The official report on the 1922 Tokyo Memorial Peace Exposition is the very model of what an official report on an exhibition should be. You could just about rebuild the whole thing from this. The detail extends to measured drawings of light fittings, plans of the garden beds and coloured reproductions of the tickets and advertising.
The 1922 Peace Memorial Exhibition, celebrating the League of Nations and a bright future, was the most lavish national Expo ever held. The pavilions were a mix of stately, ultra modern and funfair fairy tale.
HOPKINS, Henry Powell. Sources of Memorial Ornamentation. Vermont Marble Company 1924. Quarto, very good in publisher's gilt decorated boards, cloth spine; 44pp, 14 plates. Au$75
Something of a trade catalogue:- a primer of the basic styles - Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Celtic, Gothic and Colonial - with suggestions for their application to modern gravestones.
Wada Ayata. [Shiyouindo Soshoku]. Kyoto, Unsodo 1924. Folio (370x255mm), loose as issued in publisher's cloth portfolio with printed label; four leaves of text, 33 plates (10 are colour lithographs) of designs with a few photo illustrations of finished work; the last three plates are alphabets (ie Japanese characters) in new modern styles. Au$3000
Rare. In fact I have expert advice that this is 'ubu' - which when applied to books I'm told means very rare and special. This is one of the more luxuriously produced portfolios of modern Japanese designs of the period; the colour plates are glowing lithographs. Part of the fascination of Japanese modernism is that not only did 'commercial art' encompass such a breadth of, to us, disparate disciplines but that they were given equal weight. Show windows are not less important than advertising graphics, or lighting, or even architecture itself. They all demand an equal application of inventiveness and artists and designers turned their hand to buildings, posters, books, stage and costumes, and show windows with equal relish.
Wada was just such a designer of the Taisho and early Showa periods; he also produced albums of alphabets and interior designs. In later years he turned to politics and economics, which is just sad. OCLC finds only the National Diet copy.
Hayashi Tadaichi. [Shonen Teito Fukko Sugoroku]. Tokyo, Nihon Shonen 1924 (Taisho 13). Colour printed broadside 55x79cm. A much played copy with some holes in folds, several short tears and nicks around the edges. Au$200
Not a great copy but have you seen a better piece of visionary urban planning? This was the the new year gift from Nihon Shonen (Japanese Boy) and what better way to mark the new year than rebuilding the freshly devastated Tokyo along utopian lines? The title more or less translates as Boy's Reconstruction of the Imperial Capital and I'd move there in a flash.
This has been thought out. Public transport is a marvel with canals, aerial cable cars and trains tearing round the city and on and off ferries. The airport is sensibly at flight level, which must save enormous amounts of fuel and I think the floating palace is an overnight shuttle to America. Public health and safety is well considered: the fire brigade operates from a tower with a water cannon that can reach across the city to extinguish fires and the hospital will come to you, no matter the terrain. Culture and sport are catered for and the traditional at heart will be comforted to see industry over on the wrong side of the tracks, well away from the houses on the hill, where it belongs. Two essential Tokyo survivors are the start and finish: Tokyo railway station and the imperial palace.
I don't approve of the alarm on the clock tower but no-one can be unimpressed by the solar heating plant. Boy or not, this is the town for me.
Takeo Inoue. [Shojo Kokkei Kaimono Sugoroku]. Tokyo, Shojo Sekai 1925 (Taisho 14). Colour broadside 54x79cm. Signs of use with a couple of small holes in folds and a neat inscription on the back. Not bad. Au$300
Who said that a girl's life could be dull? Here are just some of the perils and joys of shopping. This was the new year gift from the magazine Shojo Sekai - Girl's World.
Aso Yutaka. [Nonki Na Tosan de Kichi Sugoroku]. Tokyo, Hochi Shinbunsha 1925 (Taisho 14). Colour illustrated broadside game (54x79cm). Folded as issued, mild signs of use and browning. With the circular portraits of the characters down the side to be cut out and used as game pieces. Au$475
The new year extra from the newspaper Hochi Shinbun starring Japan's first serial comic strip hero Nonki Na Tosan - usually translated as Easy-going or Lazy Daddy - who first appeared in regular comic strips in the paper the year before. He owed some debt to Jiggs of Bringing Up Father but uncle Nonto was a thoroughly Japanese scapegrace and loafer who quickly made his way into games, toys and, in 1925, a short animated film. Now our game is presented as a film while the information I've found about the film, and all the toys, suggests that they were piracies; comic characters were not protected by copyright. Perhaps an all round notion that popular comic strips and film are natural partners explains what may or may not be a coincidence.
This may be Nonto's first sugoroku but it certainly wasn't his last. Come the early thirties as the manga craze blossomed our hero was often teamed with Mickey Mouse and Betty Boop - something of a holy trinity. As said, uncle Nonto is a loafer and this game follows him through a series of disastrous attempts at holding down a job.
Sugoroku. [Saiken Sugoroku]. Tokyo, Fujimoto Corporation 1925 (Taisho 14). Colour broadside 78x53cm. Used, rumpled and a couple of short marginal tears repaired but very decent. With the playing pieces in the margin. Au$300
A graphic serenade to the virtues of thrift, saving and buying bonds, this was produced by the broking firm Fujimoto for their customers and is labelled 'Not For Sale'. Luckily for the artist and for us some cautionary vices were allowed to spice up a staid game: wine, women and the ponies.
Manga Sugoroku. [Manga Sugoroku]. Asahi Graph 1925 (Taisho 14). Colour broadsheet 54x79cm. Minor signs of use, pretty good. On the back is a monochrome game that features Daikokuten and a map of Japan; it doesn't look very interesting. With the playing pieces in the margin. Au$450
The new year gift from the magazine Asahi Graph celebrates the introduction and embrace of the American comic strip in Japan along with a couple of local heroes. Mutt, Jeff, Jinks, Maggie et al share the page with that pom-pom kid and his squirrel friend - or vice versa - I forget their names. But I do notice that everyone sticks to their own boxes; Jinks, Mutt and the squirrel play the same stage but not together. Such behavior came later.
It was Okamoto Ippei that convinced Asahi Graph and associated papers to publish Bringing Up Father and Mutt and Jeff. This is printed on good heavy paper and Asahi must have produced a squillion of them, so you'd expect it to be fairly easy to find. Not so.
Kobayashi Eijiro. [Kokkei Norimono Sugoroku] Tokyo, Shonen - Shojo Tankai 1925 (Taisho 14). Colour broadside 54x78cm. Small holes in a couple of folds. Au$300
A vivid fun race through all the kinds of transport there are, from monkey's tail or airship to chauffeur driven motorcar. This seems to have been a bilateral new year gift to the readers of the boys' and the girls' Tankai - magazines that ran for decades from 1920 with a name change to Science and Defence during the war years.
[Werkbund]. PFLEIDERER, Wolfgang [ed]. Die Form Ohne Ornament. Werkbundaustellung 1924. Stuttgart, Deutsche Verlags 1925. Quarto, excellent in publisher's cloth and dustwrapper; viii,22pp, photo illustrations on 89 plates and adverts. Au$300
Third and fourth thousand. The Werkbund displayed for 1924: from soap to gravestones, cutlery to satchels.
Fujimoto Katao. [Jitsuyo Oryori Kondate Manga Sugoroku]. Tokyo, Fujin Sekai 1926 (Taisho 15). Colour broadside 55x79cm. Mildly used, quite a good copy. Au$500
This delightful manga sugoroku celebrates cooking and was the new year gift from the magazine Woman's World.
Fire sugoroku. [Hifuse Senden Kotobuki Goroku]. Nagano Prefecture, Hofukujimachi Shobo-gumi 1926 (Taisho 15). Colour broadside 80x55cm. A rather good copy with its original illustrated outer wrapper. Au$750
A thrilling, vivid and rare game, bristling with peril and disaster, issued by the Hofukujimachi fire fighting department. I have seen a ragged copy of this for sale once but I haven't found a record of another copy anywhere.
Okamoto Ippei. [Yama to Umi] (Mountain & Sea). Osaka, Asahi Shimbun 1926 [Taisho 15]. Quarto publisher's colour illustrated wrapper; 40pp, b/w illustrations throughout. Natural browning of the paper; a rather good copy. Au$100
A comic commentary on the Japanese out and about on holiday and I suspect many other things beyond me. There is a cast of recurring characters and it's evident from the cover that class wars are at play - there is a drawing inside of a plutocrat mugging a beggar - but there's a lot going on in these busy pages that are fun to look at but incomprehensible to me.
Ippei, radical and scallywag, was the king of newspaper cartooning as Rakuten ruled the magazines in Taisho and early Showa Japan. It was Ippei that brought the American comic strip to Japan and he heads, with Rakuten, the lists of idols and inspiration of many modern manga artists.
Sugoroku. [Katei Kyoiku Sekai Isshu Sugoroku]. Osaka Mainichi Shimbun, 1926 (Taisho 15). Colour printed broadside 109x80cm. Short tears in the margins and small holes; used but not bad for a particularly large and vulnerable sugoroku. Au$300
It took me a few moments of slackjawed wonder before I realised this is a world map turned sideways and sat on. From where in space did the artist choose their viewpoint, unpeel the globe and spread it out flat? This a self titled educational game for the family. What does it teach us about our place on the planet and relationship to each other? Maybe that all maps are fiction. The Japanese flag flying in the Canadian Rockies marks the first ascent of Mount Alberta by the Japanese Alpine Club in 1925.
Mineda Hiroshi. [Sekai Shingata Norimono Sugoroku]. Tokyo, Kodansha 1926 (Taisho 15). Colour broadside, 55x79. Mildly used, a short tear repaired and a nick in the bottom margin; pretty good. Au$350
In this new year gift game the kids already have the glazed faces of over privileged world travellers. The only time they show excitement is when defying death by riding on top of an electric train.
Kobayashi [Eijiro?] [Daisokuryoku Sugoroku]. Tokyo, Osanago 1926 (Taisho 15) Colour broadside 77x53cm. A bit of misfolding and a couple on tiny holes, pretty good. Au$350
Reckless speed for the smaller kids, this was the new year gift from the magazine Osanago. The girls ride pillion but they do get to go fast.
Maruo Shiyo. [Mei Tantei Setsu-Mei Kurabe Sugoroku]. Tokyo, Omoshiro Kurabu 1926 (Taisho 15). Colour broadsheet 55x79; some marks, splits in folds and small holes. Used but not bad. On the back is a monochrome baseball game that looks dull. Au$300
Maybe not the best copy of this captivating detective sugoroku but since I can't trace another copy I won't take the chance on waiting for a better one. This was the new year gift from the magazine Omoshiro Kurabe - the Interesting Club.
Yanase Masamu & Fujimori Seikichi. ( ) [Okami e! (Waga Rodo)]. Tokyo, Shunjusha 1926 (Taisho 15). 20x14cm, excellent in publisher's illustrated boards and slipcase by Yanase. Spine a bit browned, minor wear to the top of the slipcase; rather good. Inscribed and signed by Fujimori in September 1926 to the novelist Wada Den (Wada Tsuto). Au$800
First edition of Fujimori's proletarian novel - the title translates as 'To the Wolf! (my labour)' - but, alas, probably more wanted for Yanase's book design these days. As I can't read the book, there's no contest for me. Both were trouble makers and both ended up in trouble - jailed every now and again, in Yanase's case tortured as well.
Yanase, both prodigy and prodigious, was one of the founders of MAVO - now Japan's best known avant-garde group of the early twenties - after membership of futurist and constructivist associations and before moving onto self proclaimed proletarian movements. He abandoned painting in the late twenties - the fine arts were anti-proletarian - and worked only as a graphic artist until the war, which he did not survive.
Wada Den was prominent in the school of farmer or peasant literaure. They both wrote about the working class but Wada was, I've read, no friend to left wing troublemakers.
Hosokibara Seiki. [Kaimono Awase]. Tokyo, Kobunsha 1927 (Showa 2). Colour broadside 46x62cm. Mildly used and rumpled, pretty good. Au$300
Not a sugoroku, this fun manga sheet was made to be be cut up and played as a matching game. It was issued as a supplement to the series of books, Shogakusei Zenshu.
Hosokibara, as well as being a busy and successful manga artist, pioneered manga studies with his 1924 history and pioneered the schism among manga artists: those who saw manga as a continuation of traditional Japanese humorous drawings and those who rejected the notion and insisted that manga was a new international graphic language.
Tanaka Higara. [Shojo Supotsu Sugoroku]. Tokyo, Shojo Kurabu 1927 (Taisho 16). Colour broadsheet 54x79. A rather good copy. On the back are photographs and details of heroines of Japanese sport printed in blue. Au$425
Stylish indeed but not printed on the best paper, this sugoroku is hard to find still in one piece. This was the new year gift from the girl's magazine Shojo Kurabu - Girl's Club. There are not so many sugoroku in which girls get to be unashamedly athletic and competitive.
Shogakusei Zenshu. Murayama Tomoyoshi. [Ongaku no Hanashi to Syokashu]. Tokyo, Kobunsha 1927 [Showa 2]. Octavo, cloth backed publisher's illustrated card wrapper; one colour plate, b/w illustrations throughout. Some browning and mild signs of use; a rather good copy. Shogakusei Zenshu no.67. Covers - front and back - by Murayama Tomoyoshi. Au$125
The Shogakusei Zenshu, or Complete Works for Elementary Schools, runs to some 88 volumes of educational texts and literature - much of this in translation; few of them seem elementary. This one covers music. Murayama maybe leads the list of avant-garde heros of interwar Japan. Founder of MAVO and communist troublemaker he had books and plays banned, ended up in prison and produced lively, humourous illustrations for children.
Kuriki Kojiro. [Kyokun Manga Sugoroku]. Tokyo, Shogaku 1927 (Showa 2). Colour broadside 54x78cm. Some splodges and a small hole, not a bad copy. Au$325
The new years gift from the boy's first grade magazine of the Shogaku stable. A bright sugoroku in which, as I see it, most of the fun is what we are warned against. The title was used for more than one sugoroku.
Hotels. The Stevens. The World's Greatest Hotel. Chicago. Chicago, the company [1927]. Quarto publisher's printed wrapper; 32pp, profusely illustrated. Au$75
A celebratory promotion marking the opening of this massive and opulent pile. Built at a cost of over thirty million dollars, as proclaimed in the first sentence, the building still exists but the Stevens family went up in smoke wihin five years. By 1932 the hotel was bankrupt and the trio of father and two sons were soon after indicted for financial corruption. The father had a permanently crippling stroke, the elder son blew his brains out and the younger went to prison.
Inoue Takeo. [Kodomo Katsudo Shashin Sugoroku]. Tokyo Shonen/Shoji Tankai 1927 (Taisho 16). Colour broadsheet 53x79cm. Some small holes and repairs to folds, a reasonable copy. On the back is an unusally exciting monochrome game - the bonus games put on the back rarely amount to much - a shadow game of battling monsters illustrated by Nakano Shoji. Au$500
This cinematic new year gift is from both boys' and girls' magazines, Shonen Tankai and Shoji Tankai. In love of movies at least, boys and girls are equal. Also equal in this game are Hollywood and Japanese cinema - given that Shirley is queen of all. But. Come to making your own movie and the girl gets to operate the camera while the boy directs.
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