Some favourite subjects:
Some favourite subjects:
Kabashima Katsuichi. [Kasei Kuni Tanken Kyoso Sugoroku]. Tokyo, Shonen Kurabu 1927 (Taisho 16). Colour broadsheet; 79x54cm. On the back is another game in monochrome. Some browning a few small holes, pretty decent. Au$650
I proclaim this the masterpiece of Kabashima - a busy illustrator and cartoonist for a few decades. He may be best known as the creator of the comic or manga series starring Shochan - which looked a lot like Herge before Herge did - or perhaps as the artist of ships and planes in turmoil but this meandering voyage to Mars via Saturn tops them all.
This was the new year gift from the kids' magazine Shonen Kurabu (kids' club) and, being printed well in advance, is dated Taisho 16 rather than Showa 2 - the more proper date for 1927. The game on the back is the adventures of Yaji and Kita on the Tokaido. It's neither here nor there.
FUERST, Walter Rene & Samuel J. HUME. XXth Century Stage Decoration. London, Knopf 1928. Two volumes quarto pattern cloth. I: text. II: plates; 7 colour, 387 b/w illustrations, other illustrations through the text. Extra list of plates in pocket. Au$150
Shogakusei Zenshu. Maekawa Senpan. - [Hikoku no Hanashi - Sensuikan no Hanashi]. Tokyo, Kobunsha 1928 [Showa 3]. Octavo, publisher's cloth backed illustrated card wrapper by Maekawa Senpan; illustrated title, one colour plate, photo and b/w illustrations. Minor signs of use, quite good. Au$135
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 the aeroplane and the submarine.
Maekawa started as a cartoonist and became a founding member of the Sosaku Hanga movement. Like many of his generation he continued to make his living as a commercial illustrator. Here he outshines many of his most celebrated prints.
Shogakusei Zenshu. Okano Sakae [cover design]. [Sanjutsu no Hanashi]. Tokyo, Kobunsha 1928 [Showa 3]. Octavo, cloth backed publisher's illustrated card wrapper; illustrated title in red, one colour plate and numerous b/w illustrations and diagrams through the text. Minor signs of use and usual browning; quite good. Shogakusei Zenshu no.73. Au$150
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 is arithmetic. I believe that if my maths texts looked like this my education would have been much more rewarding. This masterpiece of a cover is by Okano Sakae, one of the generation of artists who came through the western painting department of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts at the beginning of the century, later a pupil of Kuroda Seiki, and collaborator with fellow Hakubakai students on the five volume Nihon Meisho Shasei Kiko.
Kipling. Takeo Takei. [Janguru Bukku]. Tokyo, Kobunsha 1928 [Showa 3]. Octavo, cloth backed publisher's illustrated card wrapper; illustrated title and endpapers, one colour plate and numerous b/w illustrations and diagrams through the text. A used copy, with smudges and marks. Not bad for these school texts that usually survive in revolting condition. Shogakusei Zenshu no.49. Cover, endpapers and title page by Takeo Takei Au$50
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. Here is Kipling's Jungle Book translated by Kikuchi Kan. The illustrations inside by Unno Seiko are not anything to write home about.
Shogakusei Zenshu. [Jido Butsuru Kagaku Monogatari]. Tokyo, Kobunsha 1928 [Showa 3]. Octavo, cloth backed publisher's illustrated card wrapper; illustrated title, two colour plates, photo and b/w illustrations through the text. Some browning and mild signs of use; a rather good copy. Shogakusei Zenshu no.61. Cover by Michioka Toshi. Au$90
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 is physics and chemistry.
Shogakusei Zenshu. [Kodomo Seiri Eisei Monogatari]. Tokyo, Kobunsha 1928 [Showa 3]. Octavo, cloth backed publisher's illustrated card wrapper; one colour plate, photo and b/w illustrations. Some browning and mild signs of use; a rather good copy. Shogakusei Zenshu no.69. Colour frontispiece by Unno Seiko, other illustrations by Hosokibara Seiki. Au$85
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 health. Seiki's illustrations aren't so well printed but they are lively and amusing.
Exhibition - Tokyo [Tokyo Hakurankai Dai Ichi Kaijo Dai Ni Kaijo Bayoru No Bikan]. Tokyo, Urashimado? 1928 (Showa 3). Colour lithograph 37x78cm. Creased and crumpled but still worthwhile. Au$150
This is the Dairei Memorial Expo of 1928 - held to celebrate the coronation of Hirohito - by night. This is how the world looked when I was a child. Trying to recover this vision with varied hallucinogens and psychotropics only works for so long so it's good to have a permanent souvenir.
Hayashi Tadaishi. [Sekai Haya Mawari Hiko Kyoso Sugoroku]. Tokyo, Nihon Shonen 1928 (Showa 3). Colour broadsheet 55x76. On the back is another game - a warship battle seemingly taking place among coral atolls - printed in blue. Trimmed a bit close on one side. Au$375
A flying race around the world - so the title tells us - maybe, if you consider the northern hemisphere the whole world. This was the new year gift from the boys' magazine Nihon Shonen.
[Catalogue - Furniture]. Thonet. Thonet Freres. Paris Bd. Poissonniere, &c [c1928]. Oblong quarto by size, printed wrapper; 2pp & numerous illustrations on 11 leaves printed on rectos. Price list for March 1928 inserted. Au$275
An unfamiliar side of Thonet: their more substantial pieces, sofas and arms chairs in leather and upholstered chairs of all types.
SIMON, Oliver and RODENBERG, Julius. Printing of To-Day. An illustrated survey of post-war typography in Europe and the United States. With a general introduction by Aldous Huxley. London, Peter Davies 1928. Quarto publisher's cloth (the white cloth a touch browned); 122 examples in appropriate colours. Au$150
The special edition of 300 copies on hand made paper.
Murayama Tomoyoshi. [Puroretaria Eiga Nyumon]. Tokyo, Zen'ei Shobo 1928 (Showa 3), 19x13cm publisher's red wrapper with mounted label (wrapper colour patchy); [8],276pp, loose photo frontispiece, photo illustrations through the text. A nice copy in the original card slipcase. Au$600
First, only contemporary I'm sure, edition of Murayama's introduction to proletarian film - a literal translation of the title. By 1928 Mavo founder Murayama had already had one play banned and soon enough began the first of a series of arrests for troublemaking. Mavo, a determined regrounding of constructivism - which Murayama had brought back from Germany - in the concerns of real life, was both progenitor and, for a while, companion of specifically proletarian branches of the avant-garde: the Proletarian Art Academy and the Proletarian Art Federation, the Proletarian Film League ... . You will find Murayama's name in the histories of them all. He made films of course; infuriated architects by designing buildings; designed, wrote and directed plays; wrote novels, theory and criticism like this; painted and made collage constructions; and like many radical, or just outstanding, artists of his generation, made his living illustrating children's books and magazines.
It may seem trivial but even the title of this book, using the phonetic transcription of 'proletarian' was a modern typographic departure from the usual three character Kanji - musansha. Worldcat finds no copy of this outside Japan.
Kakumoto Jazz Song. Album of labels all advertising Kakumoto. n.p. 1929-30. 18x26cm album with grained paper wrapper; 147 labels - many metallic ink on glazed paper - on both sides of eight leaves and another five blank leaves. Au$975
I bought this as the most unusual and chic album of match labels I've seen but I'm not sure now what these are. There are a squillion albums of Japanese match labels and many of them are interesting in some way or another but this one stands alone. These were all produced for what I first took to be a nightclub, bar, or cafe where jazz ruled. Now I wonder whether it was predominantly a cinema. Most labels centre on Kobe where jazz took root in Japan in the twenties but some mention Tokyo and the eight part labels with the line of dancing girls is dated September 1929 and presumably advertises a particular show related to the movie and or song Pale Rose - a hit of 1929. Jazz, booze, cinema, girls ... what could be more up to date.
The big puzzle for me is that I can't find anything about Kakumoto Jazz Song, or vice versa. How can anything so smart, so thoroughly modern, be so forgotten? There is a growing heap of stuff about modernism, modernity and licentious behavior in pre-war Japan so where is Kakumoto amongst all this? The first label in the album is a menu - called Jazz Song Program ("Jiazu Song Purogramu ... Kobe") - of sixteen labels - those that are sketches and come in variations of colour and paper. These seem to be all names of films.
Yoshimoto Sanpei. [Isoppu Sugoroku]. Tokyo, Shogaku 1929 (Showa 4). Colour broadside 54x80cm, folded as issued. A sketch of the cat begun on the back; rumpled and a bit used with a few short marginal tears; not bad. Au$275
This cartoon game of Aesop's fables was the new year gift from the fourth grade magazine in the Shogaku stable. I'd guess the small magazine covers down the left margin are the playing pieces. Yoshimoto was the cartoonist and illustrator for children maybe best known for the ubiquitous bear Korosuke.
[Sekai Hatsumei Hatsuken Sugoroku]. Tokyo, Shogaku Shinensei Furoku 1929 (Showa 4). Colour broadsheet 54x78cm. A rather good copy. Au$300
An inspirational, if odd, game celebrating great inventors. This was the new year gift from Shogaku Shinensei - a magazine for 4th graders. I'm not sure whether you get to be a god or hang out with a god, join his procession.
Okamoto Ippei. [Shufunotomo - Manga Sugoroku]. Tokyo, Shufunotomosha 1929 (Showa 4). Broadside 64x94cm; colour printed. Rather good. Au$400
A splendid large and lively sugoroku issued as a New Year gift by the magazine The Housewife's Friend. The game is an intriguing melange, to me, of the modern and traditional; whether in conflict or harmony or all round mocked I don't know. The winning post - the joyful family of plump plutocrats with both husband and wife looking remarkably like lucky gods - is the dream of the modern young woman being hatched from an egg in the upper right but she is not the starting point of the game. There seems to be several starting points. Did any young western woman ever dream of being rich and fat?
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.
Poster. Hanoi Fair / H i-Ch Hanoi ... 1929 ... Hanoi, Imp. d'Extreme Orient 1929. Colour lithograph poster 100x65cm. Folded. A 20cm tear from the top repaired and some small tears caused by carelessness after having been pinned up at each corner. Au$800
A stylish announcement in English, Vietnamese and Japanese for the Hanoi Fair in December 1929.
Nakamura Susumu [&] Hosokibara Seiki [&] [Shin'an Supotsu Sugoroku [&] Unmei Unsei Dokusen-ban]. Tokyo, Asahi 1929 (Showa 4). Broadsheet 54x79cm, colour game on one side, game printed in blue on the other. Quite good. Au$400
1929's new year gift from Asahi is a stylish if fun-free game of sports. No smiles here, winning is a serious business. What I learn from this is that if you want to meet girls then table tennis is the game. Nowhere else are they in sight. The game on the back is outwardly much plainer but it is fun; there are a lot of pretty good drawings and cartoons by Hosokibara Seiki.
Okamoto Ippei. [Shufunotomo - Manga Sugoroku]. Tokyo, Shufunotomosha 1929 (Showa 4). Broadside 64x94cm; colour printed. Not the best copy, over creased with several repairs to separated folds, but all there. Au$100
A splendid large and lively sugoroku - racing game - by the illustrator/cartoonist whose place in modern manga history is still being argued. Issued as a New Year gift by the magazine The Housewife's Friend, the game is an intriguing melange, to me, of the modern and traditional; whether in conflict or harmony or all round mocked I don't know. The winning post - the joyful family of plump plutocrats with both husband and wife looking remarkably like lucky gods - is the dream of the modern young woman being hatched from an egg in the upper right but she is not the starting point of the game. There seems to be several starting points. Did any young western woman ever dream of being rich and fat?
If you look up Okamoto Ippei in non-Japanese places now you will find so many entries telling us how unjustly neglected and forgotten he is in the history of comics and manga that we know his place is assured. Ippei 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 heads, with Rakuten, the lists of idols and inspiration of many modern manga artists; hardly forgotten.
KRASNOV, Pyotr Nikolayevich, Oki Atsuo & Onchi Koshiro. [Soto no Washi Yori Akahata e]. Tokyo, Ars 1930. Octavo publisher's printed cloth in white, yellow, red and black; printed card slipcase; title page printed in red and black. A bit of wear to the case, a touch of browning or dustiness to the book. Neat owner's name on box and back endpaper. A rather good copy. Au$400
First and probably only edition - and near impossible to find in decent condition - of volume one of Krasnov's virulent anti-communist novel, published in English in two volumes as 'From Double Eagle to Red Flag'. Volume two in Japanese apparently never made it to print.
A splendid bit of book design by Onchi Koshiro and a curious convergence of over sized personalities. Krasnov was the commander of the Russian army who carried his fight against the Bolsheviks to Europe and cozied up with the Nazis. He surrendered to the British with the promise he wouldn't be turned over to the Soviets. He was and was executed in 1947.
The translator, Oki Atsuo, was a decidedly nationalist poet whose military songs and verses won awards during the war and seemingly worked against him afterwards. He ended up writing school songs.
If artist, printmaker and designer, Onchi, had any politics they haven't been translated into English. He was at the head of modern Japanese art from the teens pretty much up until his death in 1955. Still he has managed to create what could be taken as a strident fascist emblem until we look at the box where that Soviet flag looks almost heroic behind those bars. Onchi designed a few books for Ars between 1919 and 1934 and given their house styles for their art titles - from drab to downright ugly - I wonder why they hired him in the first place and then why they didn't use him a lot more. Note how Onchi used the as yet unset modernisation of reading and writing. The title reads left to right on the box and on the title it reads left to right on the black band and reverses on the red band.
Textiles. A gathering of 15 original designs for textile designs. n.p. [1930s]. 15 sheets in gouche and inks; all about 40cm in one direction and ranging from 20 to 32cm in the other. One with a short clean tear. Short notes on the back of three, numbers on two. Au$650
Pretty lurid, huh? As the thirties pressed on and the avant garde was in disgrace - communist and anarchist scum that they were - textile design became less adventurous in form but brighter, so much brighter, and woodcut pattern books from Kyoto with designs like this proliferated. Something of a Kano school revival.
These flower designs are so highly finished I'm convinced they were made for a pattern book - probably spring or summer; autumn and winter were more restrained. Working drawing are usually much more ... well, working.
Catalogue - Photo albums. Seiundo Co. Tokyo. Catalogue of Album. Tokyo [193-?]. 16x10.5cm publisher's colour illustrated wrapper with metal pin; 18 leaves printed one side, b/w photo illustrations. Au$50
A neat little catalogue of photo and other albums in a varitey of styles, available in different sizes. Japan was by the thirties camera crazy as well having a large population of avid ephemera collectors. A good time to be in the album business.
Poster. [Riken Chakku]. n.p. [c1930?]. Colour lithograph poster 93x59cm. Small chomps from the top right edge and the very bottom; with metal hanging strips and loop at the top. Au$450
Have you seen any movie as dynamic and thrilling as a Riken chuck at work? Me neither.
Hirai Fusando? - [Nori no tomo - sen'i no horumon]. n.p. [193-?]. Colour poster 54x19cm. Au$100
A cheery shop poster advertising ... I'm not sure what. I can't figure out whether you swallow this stuff or use it with your laundry. Actually, I'm pretty sure it's laundry but the mention of hormones was confusing. I'm pretty definite this is by the cartoonist and illustrator Hirai Fuzando, it's definitely his character - the housewife who knows everything.
Sunday Chewing Gum. [Sande Chiuingamu]. Yamazaki Seika Kenkyujo [193-?]. Colour lithograph poster 56x19cm. Rather good with the original metal strips and loop. Au$125
A shop poster for Sunday Chewing Gam (sic) against an unexpected wintery background. I guess chewing gum really has no season.
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