ARS LIBRI ELECTRONIC LIST #58
JAPANESE AVANT- GARDE
Ars Libri, Ltd. /
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Electronic List 58: Japanese Avant-Garde
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HAGIWARA KYOJIRO. Shikei senkoku [Death Sentence]. (28), 161, (1), 5, (3)pp., 8 plates printed in yellow. Profusely
illustrated throughout with original linocuts by Tatsuo Okada, KimimaroYabashi, and Tatsuo Toda. Dec. wraps., designed by
Okada. Slipcase (dec. red boards, designed by Okada).
Second edition; first published Tokyo, October 1925. We quote at length from Gennifer Weisenfeld’s discussion of the book:
“[‘Shikei senkoku’] was one of Mavo’s best-known projects and the group’s only collaborative book design. Mavo executed
the entire layout of Hagiwara’s anthology, deciding everything down to the pitch of the text. It is one of the finest examples of
a successful integration of text, design, typography, and illustration. At the time, ‘Shikei senkoku’ was considered extremely
experimental, graphically.... Without the artistic constraints placed on many commercial publications, Mavo artists were free
to produce a strong visual response to the tumultuous poems. Okada did most of the illustrations for the volume, as well as
designing the cover. It consisted of two bold black lattices on both the left and right borders, a yellow band at the top with the
author’s name, a thicker red band with the book title below this, a bluish circle in the center, and a black-and-white grid
pattern at the bottom with boxes filled in to create an abstract pattern.... Several of the illustrations inside ‘Shikei senkoku’
were photographic reproductions of Mavo work already published in the group’s magazine. The rest were abstract linocuts.
Line, dot, and arrow border patterns dynamically frame the texts, which were interspersed with full-page illustrations, some
featuring bold, black-and-white abstract patterns .... The typography used for the poems was also experimental, often
incorporating symbols and shapes to substitute for characters and letters.”
As the Machida catalogue shows, Okada’s alteration in the cover design of the second edition, changing the lattice from
black to blue, gives the composition a new coloristic brilliance. Small losses and very small split at spine; slipcase lightly
scuffed at corners, with small splits at edges. A remarkably fine, unusually fresh and bright copy. Extremely rare.
Tokyo (Choryusha Shoten), 1926.
$15,000.00
Weisenfeld, Gennifer: Mavo: Japanese Artists and the Avant-Garde, 1905-1931 (2002), p. 197ff. ; cf. Omuka, Toshiharu:
“Tada=Dada (Devotedly Dada) for the Stage: The Japanese Dada Movement 1920-1925,” in: Janec ek, Gerald & Omuka,
Toshiharu: The Eastern Dada Orbit... (Crisis and the Arts: The History of Dada, Vol. 4; New York, 1998), p. 283f.; Urawa Art
Museum: Books as Art: From Taisyo Period Book Design to Contemporary Art Objects (2001), p. 82f., pl. 26 (4 illus.), (citing
2nd edition); Centre Georges Pompidou: Japon des avant-gardes 1910/1970 (Paris, 1986), pp. 177f., 516; Machida City
Museum of Graphic Arts: Modernism in the Russian Far East and Japan, 1918-1928 (Machida, 2002), illus. 272 (and cf.
271)
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HANAYA, KANBEI. Light A, B, C. 3 ferrotyped photographs, originally made 1930, printed by Hanaya in the 1970s. Image
size: 242 x 190 mm. (ca. 9 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches). Sheet size: 255 x 202 mm. (ca. 10 x 8 inches). Each archivally matted.
These very significant pictures by Kanbei Hanaya (1903-1991), dating from 1930, are landmarks of Shinko Shashin,
Japanese modernist photography of the 1930s. Together with Iwata Nakayama, Hanaya was the co-founder in 1930 of the
Ashiya Camera Club, w hich he helped to position as Japan’s leading avant-garde photographic group. Inspired by European
art, particularly the work of Man Ray and Moholy-Nagy, Hanaya’s work drew attention for its unusual expression of
movement through double exposure, montage, and slow shutter speeds, and his reputation grew with the publication of his
photographs in the influential “Provoke” magazine. “Light A, B, C” are Hanaya’s most important photographs, and are major
works in the history of Japanese avant-garde photography. Heinz Spielmann, in “Die japanische Photographie,” publishes
the series with the titles “Revolving,” “Flying B,” and “Flying A.”
A set of vintage prints is in the collection of the Ashiya City Museum of Art and History. These rare modern ferrotyped prints
were made by Hanaya in the 1970s, and were never signed; later printings, after these, were stamped. A set of “tirages
modernes” was exhibited in “Japon des avant-gardes” at the Centre Georges Pompidou in 1986. A few sets are in Japanese
public collections. Fine condition.
[Tokyo, 1930/1970s]
$15,000.00
Ashiya City Museum of Art and History: Art in Ashiya: Ashiya Camera Club 1930-1942 (Ashiya, 1998), pls. 69-71 (and front
cover illustration).; Kamakura Museum of Modern Art: Japanese Photography in 1930s (Kamakura, 1988), illus. 238-240;
Spielmann, Heinz: Die japanische Photographie. Geschichte, Themen, Strukturen (DuMont Foto. 5. Köln, 1984), pp. 56ff.,
62f., 252f., illus. 44.; Centre Georges Pompidou: Japon des avant-gardes 1910/1970 (Paris, 1986), p. 518
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HIRATO RENKICHI. Hirato Renkichi shishu [Poems by Hirato Renkichi]. Kanbara Tai, editor. (4), 193, (1), 6, (8)pp. 2
preliminary leaves with text and portrait photograph of the author (the second leaf printed in blue). Dec. wraps., with
abstraction repeated on both covers.
The short-lived Hirato Renkichi (1894-1922) was “the only self -proclaimed futurist poet in Japan” (Weisenfeld), and a
participant in the important second exhibition of the Futurist Art Association, in Tokyo, October 1921. “In the history of
Japanese literature, it is commonly accepted that the first [Futurist] manifestation was by the poet Renkichi Hirato...who
reportedly scattered leaflets of his manifesto ‘Nihon Mirai-ha Sengen Undo/ Mouvement Futuriste Japonais’ at Hibiya Park in
the center of Tokyo sometime in December 1921,” writes Toshiharu Omuka, though cautioning that there is no documentary
evidence to prove this actually took place. “Hirato became a member of the Futurist Art Association in October, and probably
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exhibited this manifesto in lieu of a work of art.” Omuka draws attention to the pioneering typographic experimentation in the
manifesto, an aspect evident in this collection of poems, which includes Japanese examples of parole in libertà,
incorporating Western letters.
Hirato’s manifesto is reproduced in the book, its text printed in blue. Wraps. lightly worn, neatly mended at spine, generally a
very nice copy.
Tokyo (Hirato Renkichi Shishu Kanko Kai), 1931.
$3,500.00
Urawa Art Museum: Books as Art: From Taisyo Period Book Design to Contemporary Art Objects (2001), p. 81 pl. 65;
Centre Georges Pompidou: Japon des avant-gardes 1910/1970 (Paris, 1986), pp. 146 (full-page plate), 187 (illus.), 516; Cf.
Weisenfeld, Gennifer: Mavo: Japanese Artists and the Avant-Garde, 1905-1931 (2002), p. 50
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(MAVO) HAGIWARA, KYOJIRO. Autograph letter, signed, to Takuzo Takahashi, 8 August 1925, together with
original “Mavo” letterhead envelope. Letter: 1p., on buff-colored wove stationery paper, printed with faint guidelines for
writing. 249 x 360 mm. (ca. 9 3/4 x 14 inches). Envelope: Buff-colored wove stock, boldly printed in black with massive
woodcut “Mavo” logo. 95 x 148 mm. (ca. 5 3/4 x 7 1/2 inches). Matted and framed together. The envelope is opened at three
sides and folded out as a flat sheet, so that both sides are visible in the mat. Envelope roughly opened at righthand side, and
with light wear; postal cancellation overlaps modestly with the printed Mavo logo.
An extremely rare example of Mavo stationery, featuring a boldly designed "Mavo" logo in characteristic typography, with an
accompanying letter by Kiyogiro Hagiwara (1899-1938), one of the editors of "Mavo," whose collection of poems , "Shikei
senkoku [Death Sentence]," is perhaps the single most important publication of the movement.
The Hagiwara letter, which is poignant and revealing, dates from a critical moment in Mavo history, coinciding with the
August 1925 publication of the final issue of "Mavo," and written only shortly before the October 1925 publication of "Death
Sentence." Postmarked August 8th, it is a rather desperate appeal for a loan, sent to a close friend with whom, in 1923, he
had shared a house. Hagiwara writes that he's been overtaken by sadness during the summer, and wonders why Takahashi
hadn't answered his letter of the month before--perhaps he never received it, or perhaps he had no money to send.
Hagiwara says he has no one else to turn to, and though it grieves him, he implores him for 30 yen, or perhaps 20. He urges
him to reply in any case, and closes by remarking that he has much else to tell him. In a postscript, Hagiwara muses about
Takahashi's weariness in the face of his constant demands. He says he feels lonely, and overwhelmed by work, and tired,
like an old man.
Of special interest is the fact that Hagiwara's letter is written on the stationery of the Nanten-do bookstore and café, a
celebrated gathering place of Dadaists and Anarchists, which mounted avant-garde art exhibitions, and published the radical
poetry journal "Damu damu [Dumdum]," to which Hagiwara contributed. Hagiwara was, notoriously, an habitué of the
Nanten-do bar.
"Death Sentence," Hagiwara's legendary first book of poetry, is likely to have been in press (or at any rate in preparation) at
the time this letter was written, given that its publication had been announced for September, prior to its eventual publication
date of 18 October. Illustrated with original linocuts by Tatsuo Okada, Kimimaro Yabashi, and Tatsuo Toda, it is the Mavo
book par excellence. "Mavo executed the entire layout of Hagiwara's anthology, deciding everything down to the pitch of the
text. It is one of the finest examples of a successful integration of text, design, typography and illustration. At the time 'Shikei
senkoku' was considered extremely experimental graphically. As Takahashi Shuichiro has noted, it was designed to fit
Hagiwara's persona as a kuroki hannin (black criminal, that is, an anarchist)" (Weisenfeld). Much of its wild emotion and
bitter social critique was also expressive of an underlying sense of isolation, which his friend the Mavo poet Jun Okamoto
traced to his melancholy longing for the rural world of his childhood. Much of this is to be felt in this letter.
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Outside issues of "Mavo" itself and the books published by members of the movement, surviving examples of Mavo
typography are of the greatest rarity. They are of memorable interest, both for their vital stylistic originality and for their value
as cultural documents. We quote at length from Gennifer Weisenfeld:
"In addition to engaging the commercial realm in their art work by incorporating materials and reproductive fragments from
mass culture and industrial production, Mavo artists also worked in advertising and commercial design. Indeed, their work in
these fields, which constituted a major portion of their artistic production, had an enduring legacy in the newly emerging field
of shogyo bijutsu (commercial art)....
“The Mavo group designed its logo for promotional purposes, just as advertising used catchphrases and company
trademarks. The ‘Mavo Manifesto’ explicitly stated that the group’s mark was MV; stamped in bright fuchsia above the
artists’ names at the end of the manifesto was a carefully designed emblem with ‘Mavo’ written in the katakana syllabary and
the two letters ‘MV’ encased by an irregularly shaped abstract composition of jutting diagonals and shark fin protuberances.
The group also printed envelopes with its name on the front using the same bold typography as on the cover of ‘Mavo’
magazine. Taking its cue from a combination of the international avant-garde and contemporary commercial practices, which
were already blurred, Mavo packaged and marketed itself to the public. Everything about the group’s public face was
intentionally designed to be fashionable and modern. Mavo art work, as well as that of many of the group’s contemporaries,
laid the foundation for commercial art as a category of artistic production. In the Showa period, the link between commercial
art and ‘art’ became a topic of serious systematic study. For Mavo artists, commercial art had the potential to promote social
change through innovative forms and new functions. Their design work created a fashionable, modern visual language for a
new lifestyle. Many modern Japanese artists, like their contemporaries abroad, employed avant-garde styles and techniques
in their commercial work as a means to redesign daily life and the general perception of everyday experience.”
Tokyo, 1925.
$15,000.00
Weisenfeld, Gennifer: Mavo: Japanese Artists and the Avant-Garde, 1905-1931 (2002), p. 168f., illustrating another example
of this envelope, fig. 76, and also utilizing the envelope design for the title-page of the book; Omuka, Toshiharu: “Tada=Dada
(Devotedly Dada) for the Stage: The Japanese Dada Movement 1920-1925,” in: Janecek, Gerald & Omuka, Toshiharu: The
Eastern Dada Orbit... (Crisis and the Arts: The History of Dada, Vol. 4; New York, 1998), p. 280ff.
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(OKADA TATSUO) Toller, Ernst. Tsubame no sho [The Swallow Book]. Erunsuto Torura cho; Murayama Tomoyoshi
yaku; Okada Tatsuo sozu. 106, (2)pp. 15 full-page original linocut plates in text. Lrg. 8vo. Wraps., printed in red and black on
cream-colored paper, mounted on heavier brown (as issued).
This is one of three books illustrated with original Mavo linocuts by Okada Tatsuo, together with Hagiwara Kyojiro's "Shikei
senkoku [Death Sentence]" (1925) and Saito Hideo's "Aozameta Douteikyo [The Pale-Faced Virgin's Mad Thoughts]"
(1926). Murayama, who did the translation, knew and admired the Expressionist playwright Ernst Toller's work (as he did
Georg Kaiser's) from his extended stay in Berlin in 1922. "The first of many plays that Murayama saw at the Berlin
Volksbühne was Toller's 'Machine-Wreckers' (Machinenstürmer); …after he returned to Japan, Murayama translated Toller's
collection of poems, 'Swallow Book' (Das Schwalbenbuch; published in Japanese as 'Tsubame no sho' in 1925). Murayama
later credited Toller, along with the artist George Grosz and the Volksbühne producer Max Reinhardt, with inspiring him to
become a socialist" (Weisenfeld). Okada's linocuts in the "Swallow Book" focus less on the bizarre and macabre than those
in "Death Sentence" and "The Pale-Faced Virgin's Mad Thoughts," and are, on the whole, more classical constructivist
abstract compositions.
One of the prime movers in Mavo and the Miraiha Bijutsu Kyokai (Futurist Art Association, or FAA), Okada Tatsuo was both
an extremely visible, even violently prominent, artist and performer, and also a figure of some mystery to later scholarship;
even his dates are unknown ("fl. ca. 1900-1935"). "Okada was probably from Kyushu and is thought to have died in
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Manchuria, or to have remained there after arriving sometime in the late 1930s. Knowledge of his artistic training and
personal acquaintances is scant, but according to his later reminiscences, he was an art student when he participated in
FAA-Mavo activities…. Okada's few extant works reveal a talented, innovative printmaker aesthetically and politically
dedicated to anarchism. Okada represented a radicalizing force in the FAA-Mavo coterie, consistently leveling harsh
criticism at the group, prodding them toward more violent and extreme actions. In many ways, he was a divisive force in the
group, eventually driving them into opposing factions" (Weisenfeld).
Okada's brilliance was multifaceted. In addition to being a significant graphic artist, whose prints and assemblages were
major works of the movement, he was a performance artist starring in some of Mavo's most famous events--in June 1924,
he was Murayama's dance partner, in Murayama's first documented performance (to the accompaniment of a Russolo-like
'Noise and Sound Constructor'); and Okada's near-naked appearances, with his "Gate and Moving Ticket-Selling Machine"
at the second Sanka exhibition in 1925 (to cite but one example) are recorded in some of the most amazing photographs
surviving from the early Japanese avant-garde. He was a contributor to "Mavo," the review, in both of its two phases, and
was one of its three editors in its second period (issues 5-7). He was also a highly original typographer, designing the layout,
as well as most of the linocut illustrations, for "Shikei senkoku [Death Sentence]," the Mavo illustrated book par excellence.
As Weisenfeld notes about "Shikei senkoku," "Without the artistic constraints placed on many commercial publications,
Mavo artists were free to produce a strong visual response to the tumultuous poems." Intermittent very light foxing: an
extremely fine copy, clean and the wrappers in fresh state, far superior to that at the Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts.
Of great rarity.
Tokyo (Choryusha Shoten), 1925.
$9,500.00
Weisenfeld, Gennifer: Mavo: Japanese Artists and the Avant-Garde, 1905-1931 (2002), pp. 37, 98; cf. Omuka, Toshiharu:
“Tada=Dada (Devotedly Dada) for the Stage: The Japanese Dada Movement 1920-1925,” in: Janecek, Gerald & Omuka,
Toshiharu: The Eastern Dada Orbit... (Crisis and the Arts: The History of Dada, Vol. 4; New York, 1998), p. 280; Machida
City Museum of Graphic Arts: Modernism in the Russian Far East and Japan 1918-1928 (Machida, 2002), no. 270.1-2 (illus.)
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ONCHI KOSHIRO. Hiko Kanno [Sensation of Flight]. (32)pp. Prof. illus., integrating original color woodcuts with 26
halftone photographs of airplanes and airplane parts, control towers, aerial views, and other aspects of -flight. 4to. Dec.
boards, printed in blue and black, designed by the artist. Slipcase (boards). Onchi’s rarest and most sought-after book,
considered so important that every spread of the work is reproduced in the Urawa catalogue.
One of the leading Japanese graphic artists of the century, Onchi (1891-1955) is thought to have created the first pure
abstraction in Japanese art, in 1915. The predominant mode of his work, which he termed lyricism, exhibits “a dreamy
poeticism created by the intermingling of the abstract and the figurative” (Toru Asano, in the article on Onchi in the
Dictionary of Art). Boards with a little slight discoloration; slipcase slightly rubbed at edges; a fine copy. Of great rarity.
Tokyo, 1934.
$22,500.00
Urawa Art Museum: Books as Art: From Taisyo Period Book Design to Contemporary Art Objects (2001), no. 68, pp. 86-91;
Centre Georges Pompidou: Japon des avant-gardes 1910/1970 (Paris, 1986), p. 186
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ONCHI KOSHIRO. Umi no dowa [Fairy Tales of the Sea]. July 1934. (16)pp., including 6 full-page color woodcuts.
Typography printed in grey, with elements in colors. Sm. folio. Portfolio (printed wraps.). Orig. cellophane d.j. (losses).
Contents loose, as issued.
A beautiful and sophisticated livre d’artiste, with surrealist-cum-purist compositions of figures and parts of the body, cogs
and vegetal forms, pure geometric abstraction, and other elements. "Onchi contrived to have published a number of albums
of his prints, often accompanied by his own verses. The 1934 'Umi no Dowa,' 'Nursery Tales of the Sea,' for instance, is a
series of six designs 'cut by the artist himself on fifteen blocks' (though never more than three for any one print), with verses
by the artist. The designs are of a kind of chance groupings of fragments of human figures or everyday objects, in
conjunction with geometrical shapes, the block-applied colour making its own quite illogical contribution. One is reminded
more than anything else of the abstracts of certain Russian Constructivists of the 1920s, with their spare designs partially
helped out by machine drawing, and it is conceivable that Onchi had had the chance to study specimens of their work"
(Hillier). One of the leading Japanese graphic artists of the century, Onchi (1891-1955) is thought to have created the first
pure abstraction in Japanese art, in 1915. The predominant mode of his work, which he termed lyricism, exhibits “a dreamy
poeticism created by the intermingling of the abstract and the figurative” (Toru Asano, in the article on Onchi in the
Dictionary of Art). First and last leaves with a little faint foxing; in general a fine, crisp copy, complete with the extremely rare
obi (printed in red on cream-colored stock).
Tokyo (Hangaso), 1934.
$6,500.00
Urawa Art Museum: Books as Art: From Taisyo Period Book Design to Contemporary Art Objects (2001), p. 79 pl. 70; Cf:
Centre Georges Pompidou: Japon des avant-gardes 1910/1970 (Paris, 1986), pp. 27, 33; Hillier, Jack: The Art of the
Japanese Book (London, 1987), p. 1019
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TAKAHASHI SHINKICHI. Takahashi Shinkichi shishu [Poetical Works by Takahashi Shinkichi]. 101, (7)pp.
(mispaginated). Dec. wraps., with silhouette of the author, marked 1928. "Like Mavo, dada was elusive, and the two
movements shared many ambivalences and contradictions. From the 1920s, when newspaper articles in 'Yorozu choho'
introduced dadaism to Japan, it was embraced predominantly by the literary community. The first person to proclaim himself
a dadaist was the poet Takahashi Shinkichi, and it was he and Tsuji Jun who most strongly championed dadaism. What
appealed to Takahashi about dada was its notion of nothingness, as well as its discrediting of words and logic and its
anticonventionalism" (Weisenfeld). Rare; no copy located in OCLC.
Tokyo (Nanso Shoin), 1928.
$1,250.00
Weisenfeld, Gennifer: Mavo: Japanese Artists and the Avant-Garde, 1905-1931 (2002), p. 158f.
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TAKIGUCHI, SHUZO. Sufinkusu. Takiguchi Shuzo no shi ni yoru hangashu [The Sphinx. Collection of prints on
poems by Takiguchi Shuzo]. Conception: Sadajiro Kubo. Editor: Tatsuo Fukushima. (26)pp., printed on 7 leaves (6
folding). 6 original prints integrated with text, by Tamiji Kitagawa (“Genesis,” etching), Eikyu (“The Sphinx in May,” etching,
signed in pencil), Shigeru Izumi (“Drowsiness,” etching, signed in pencil), Tadashi Kato (“A Stone Laughed,” etching, signed
in pencil), Kojin Toneyama (“Fairy’s Distance,” lithograph), and Toshiko Aohara (“Fish’s Desire,” color woodcut, signed and
dated in pencil, tipped-in). 298 x 245 mm. (ca. 11 3/4 x 9 5/8 inches). Cover design by Ryuichi Yamashiro. Sm. folio.
Portfolio. Orig. dec. wraps., printed in red and grey. Contents loose, as issued. Edition limited to numbered 50 copies in all,
signed in ink in the colophon by Takiguchi, Kitagawa and Kubo.
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An important and extremely rare livre d'artiste based on the poems of Shuzo Takiguchi (1903-1979). Perhaps the most
distinguished and influential critic and writer in the Japanese art world for two generations, as well as a sophisticated artist in
his own right, Takiguchi--whom Biro and Passeron describe as the prime mover in the Japanese Surrealist milieu--had
already translated Breton's "Surréalisme et la peinture" by 1930; in 1937, together with Tiroux Yamanaka, he organized the
seminal exhibition of Surrealism in Tokyo and Kyoto, in collaboration with Éluard, Hugnet and Penrose. So significant was
Takiguchi as a liaison between Japan and the international Surrealist community that he was mentioned by 1932 in "Cahiers
d'Art," and in Breton and Eluard's "Dictionnaire abrégé du Surréalisme" (1938). An entire chapter of the catalogue "Japon
des avant-gardes, 1910/1970" (Centre Georges Pompidou, 1986) is devoted to Takiguchi and his continuing influence. In
her essay on him there, Vera Linhartová writes "Le nom de Takiguchi Shuzo apparaît, au fil des années 30, chaque fois que
la poésie ou les arts plastiques prennent un nouvel essor, partout où, dans l'histoire de l'art moderne au Japon, il y a
changement et novation. S'il est inconcevable d'aborder l'étude du surréalisme sans le nommer en tant que poète et
théoricien de première grandeur, et qu'il est difficile d'imaginer tout un pan de l'art japonais de l'après -guerre sans tenir
compte de ses activités critiques, il se révèle plus malaisé de rendre visible l'importance de son rôle dans le parcours d'une
exposition. Car Takiguchi est avant tout un initiateur, celui par qui le courrant passe sans nécessairement produire des
réalisations, celui qui commence et recommence sans cesse, mais, de propos délibéré, évite tout achèvement....
"Il fut poète et peintre à son heure, et non des moindres. Ses poésies parurent dans des revues d'avant-garde de 1925 à
1937, pour être réunis en un volume en 1967. Ses oeuvres plastiques, créées entre 1960 et 1970, introduisent souvent la
parole écrite en marge ou en plein milieu des images. Mais surtout, toute sa vie durant, il fut critique par vocation. Et ici, il
convient de rendre au mot son sens premier, à savoir: homme de discernement. Il sut trouver un fil conducteur dans des
courants multiples, dégager l'essentiel de pensées à peine ébauchées…. Plusieurs générations de peintres et de poètes
japonais se sont reconnues dans sa quête."
"After World War II, and particularly during the 1950s, Takiguchi continued to be involved with art movements, and wrote
criticism in which he showed a sharp sensitivity capable of detecting the contemporary vanguard... Although he retired as an
art critic in the 1960s, he may be considered the father of modern Japanese art criticism" (Shigeo Chiba, in The Dictionary of
Art).
Ryuichi Yamashiro's crisply mysterious cover design for the book is of the same year as his well-known silkscreen
typographic poster design, "Forest" (copies in MOMA and elsewhere).
This copy is accompanied by an original décalcomanie (ink-blot drawing) by Takiguchi, painted in grey-black ink on a
blank postcard, signed and dated 1963 in pen. 140 x 90 mm. (ca. 5 12/ x 3 12/ inches); cream-colored card stock. On the
verso, a closely written letter by Takiguchi, apparently thanking his correspondent for a Pierre Molinier catalogue and
informing him that he has sent him something in return.
Takeguchi held his first one-man exhibition of drawings in 1960. Décalcomanie--the Surrealist process of pressing a piece of
paper onto a painted surface and peeling it off, to collaborate with chance--became one of Takiguchi's signature techniques.
Wrappers of the book lightly worn; a fine copy. No copy on OCLC, and extremely rare.
Tokyo, 1954.
$22,500.00
Urawa Art Museum: Books as Art: From Taisyô Period Book Design to Contemporary Art Objects (2001), p. 95. no. 93 (with
3 illus.); Centre Georges Pompidou: Japon des avant-gardes 1910/1970 (Paris, 1986), pp. 320ff., 516; Cf.:Biro/Passeron p.
395f.; Abbey Travel
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Takiguchi Shuzo (translator). Breton, André. Cho genjitsu shugi to kaiga./ Le surréalisme et la peinture. Translation by
Takiguchi Shuzo. (Gendai no Geijutsu to Hihyo Sosho. 17.) (4), 100, 6, (16)pp., 41 plates. Wraps. D.j., in parallel Japanese
and English. Illustrations of work by Picasso, de Chirico, Miró, Arp, Man Ray, Masson, Tanguy et al. Takiguchi Shuzo (1903-
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1979) is recognized as the prime mover of the Japanese Surrealist milieu. In 1937, together with Tiroux Yamanaka, he
organized the seminal exhibition of Surrealism in Tokyo and Kyoto, in collaboration with Eluard, Hugnet and Penrose. So
significant was Takiguchi as a liaison between Japan and the international Surrealist community that he was mentioned by
1932 in "Cahiers d'Art," and in Breton and Eluard's "Dictionnaire abrégé du Surréalisme" (1938). Indeed, an entire chapter of
the catalogue "Japon des avant-gardes, 1910/1970" (Centre Georges Pompidou, 1986) is devoted to Takiguchi and his
influence. In her essay on him there, Vera Linhartová writes "Le nom de Takiguchi Shuzo apparaît, au fil des années 30,
chaque fois que la poésie ou les arts plastiques prennent un nouvel essor, partout où, dans l'histoire de l'art moderne au
Japon, il y a changement et novation. S'il est inconcevable d'aborder l'étude du surréalisme sans le nommer en tant que
poète et théoricien de première grandeur, et qu'il est difficile d'imaginer tout un pan de l'art japonais de l'après-guerre sans
tenir compte de ses activités critiques, il se révèle plus malaisé de rendre visible l'importance de son rôle dans le parcours
d'une exposition. Car Takiguchi est avant tout un initiateur, celui par qui le courrant passe sans nécessairement produire des
réalisations, celui qui commence et recommence sans cesse, mais, de propos délibéré, évite tout achèvement.... Plusieurs
générations de peintres et de poètes japonais se sont reconnues dans sa quête.” List of illustrations neatly annotated in ink
with French translations; otherwise, a fine copy.
Tokyo (Koseikaku-shoten), 1930.
$1,750.00
Centre Georges Pompidou: Japon des avant-gardes 1910/1970 (Paris, 1986), pp. 190 (illus.), 516
11
Takiguchi Shuzo. MIRO. (Seiyo Bijutsu Bunko.) 36, (10)pp., 49 plates (including frontispiece in color). Dec. wraps., with
portrait of Miró on the front cover. Covers a bit chipped and worn.
Tokyo (Atelier sha), 1940.
$800.00
La planète affolée: Surréalisme, dispersion et influences, 1938-1947 (Marseille, 1986), p. 267