Type Punch Matrix (7 results)

First edition. Signed first printing of this collection of interviews with Japanese "Living National Treasures" who practice traditional arts - illustrated with photographs of objects and diagrams by Michael Foreman. THE GUARDIAN identifies Michael Foreman as "one of the best-known British writer-illustrators," in part thanks to his remarkable output: since he began his career in 1961, he has published over 300 books for children and adults. He has earned two Kate Greenaway Medals, and has twice been nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award. 9.75'' x 9.5''. Original brown boards. Original unclipped ($16.50) color pictorial dust jacket. Illustrated in color. 68, 96 pages, including index. Signed by Adachi to title page. Jacket with light edgewear and a couple tiny rubbed spots, a bit of chipping to corners and spine ends; 3" closed tear to front panel near joint. Binding with a touch of bumping to spine ends. A couple small spots of soil to edges of textblock, a bit visible in the margins of first and final leaves. Tight. Very good plus in very good minus dust jacket.

Seller Inventory # 46330

Condition: Good plus. Issue 7 of the well-known series of modern Japanese photography, capturing the state of the art in mid-century Japan. 14'' x 10''. Original photographic wrappers. Illustrated with 32 full-page black and white photographs (a few double-page spreads). [4], 32, 15, [1] pages. Spine quite worn with a few sections deteriorated or lacking, moderate edgewear and rubbing to wrappers. Interior clean and intact.

Seller Inventory # 50379

Condition: Near fine. Photo-illustrated reporter's survey of bath houses and massage parlors of Japan in the 1970s. William Wetherall notes that "in Japan, torukoburo (Turkish bath) is a controversial synonym for a 'bathhouse cum massage parlor' that offers a 'carnalcopia' of sexual services which may be cryptically listed on the schedule of charges at the entrance" (in "'Turkish baths' by any other name: the politics of Japanese rubdowns"). Hirooka documents these particular systems of prostitution, including legal, historical, and economic factors. He investigates the lives and culture of those involved, and includes a chronology in the final section. 7.5'' x 4.75''. . Original pale pink wrappers stamped in brown. In original typographic dust jacket with black and brown lettering. Illustrated with two full-page photographic images and corner photographic vignettes throughout. 231, [3] pages. Publisher's reader survey laid in. Faint soiling to jacket, with a touch of sunning to spine.

Seller Inventory # 39633

Condition: Fine in very good slipcase. First edition of this photobook documenting the famous protests against the construction of Narita International Airport, known as the Sanrizuka Struggle. 8.25'' x 11.75''. Original cream cloth stamped in black to spine and front board. In original printed slipcase; original blue printed obi laid in. Red endpapers. Photographic illustrations in black and white throughout. 120 pages. Slipcase somewhat soiled and foxed, with lower joints starting. Book beautiful.

Seller Inventory # 50380

Condition: Very good plus. Beautiful drafted set of partial sheets for the creation of cards used in the traditional game on classical Japanese poetry. The aristocratic poet Fujiwara no Teika selected the poems of the HYAKUNIN ISSHU during the Heian period (794-1185), Japan's literary and artistic "Golden Age." These hundred poems soon became the standard introduction to waka poetry in Japan - the first encounter with the canon, much as Caesar's GALLIC WARS has been the gateway for students of Latin. The HYAKUNIN ISSU was also often the only source accessible to women, children, and members of the lower classes who wanted to explore this historically elite tradition; indeed, one fifth of the poets included are women, such as Murasaki Shikibu, author of THE TALE OF GENJI. Over the centuries, this compilation became a stable body of shared knowledge reflected in many aspects of Japanese cultural life, from clothing design to Noh theater to the art of Hokusai. The collection is still taught in schools, and most educated Japanese adults can recite poems from it. In this game, players pull cards that contain lines excerpted from one of the hundred poems in the HYAKUNIN ISSU, which they must then match with the card that contains the remaining poem. While this collection of sheets is incomplete (with only 60 cards out of 100 depicted), it includes a wide variety of images: eleven of the figures here are women, depicted with pre Meiji-era fashions including long, unbound hair (especially celebrated in Heian-era works like THE TALE OF GENJI); whitened faces; and high drawn eyebrows far up on the forehead; among the men authors depicted are gentlemen with elaborate coiffures, monks with shaved heads and prayer beads, and a warrior with bow and arrow. The illustrative interpretations from the many versions of this game have developed into a kind of iconography of famous poets, exerting a strong impact on the popular image of the classical Japanese author. Sheets 9.5'' x 13.5'' each. 6 sheets of thin Japanese paper with ten hand-painted figures each in two rows of five, rectos only (60 figures total). Sheets numbered at lower right corner 1-4 and 10 (lacking leaves 5-9). Some light spotting and crinkling to edges of leaves, else bright and clear.

Seller Inventory # 44647

Condition: Near fine. Trilingual publication (Japanese, English, French) of elaborately produced color woodblock prints on the theme of traditional Japanese children's games. Gorgeous multi-color woodblock prints capture traditional games based on famous paintings created hundreds of years earlier. The laid-in English description includes (in part): "Hane-tsuki: 'Battledore and Shuttlecock,' a game played principally during the first ten days of the New Year"; "Koma Asobi: 'Playing with Tops,' and Tamaya: 'Blowing Soap-bubbles"; "Sugoroku, a sort of backgammon"; "Hotaru-gari: 'Hunting Fireflies"; and more, including descriptions of holidays like Obon and making "snowmen" of Daruma, the iconographic image of the monk who brought Zen to Japan. The skill of late-era ukiyo-e and nihonga artist Kobayashi Eitaku is evident in this collection, which showcases traditional subjects and aesthetics - very much in response to the Western styles enjoying a growing vogue in the Meiji era. Publisher Nagao explains in the preface that he wanted to create a work of virtuosity within the form, both for love of the art and as a patriotic homage to Japan's homegrown arts in the face of Western ones: to this end, he issued the publication with Japanese, French, and English text. Truly a beautiful production, just as the publisher hoped it would be. 9'' x 11.5''. Original rough cloth boards bound orihon (accordion) style. One full-page color printed illustration, followed by preface in three languages and 12 full-page color woodblock prints mounted on handmade paper with gold flecks. Text in Japanese. Single folded sheet laid in containing 2 pages of printed descriptions of the games depicted in each print. A bit of soiling to printed label, else remarkably bright and clean.

Seller Inventory # 39100

Condition: Very good plus. Original photo album of a Japanese businessman's American travels, including stops in Seattle and Chicago before a longer stay in New York, and a visit to a Japanese family in Long Island. From photos out the window of his fifth-floor apartment facing the Hudson River, to people lined up to board New York City buses, to ice skating outings and picnics in the park, businessman Kusonoki Naohiro documented a variety of private and public moments in this album of his stay in New York City and travels around the US. There are, of course, also photographs of famous sights, including Niagara Falls, Grand Central Station, and the Empire State Building, as well as a number of color postcards purchased during the trip of other landmarks. The photographs assembled by Kusonoki date from 1928 to 1931, and demonstrate the pre-war cultural exchange between Japan and the US. An ephemeral insight into the life of Japanese visitors and immigrants before the disruption of WWII. 5.7'' x 7'' (leaves); 3.5'' x 5.5'' (postcards); 2.5'' x 3.5'' (majority of photographs). Original stiff black textured paper boards, with black cord tie; paper manuscript label to front board. 67 black-and white photographs, 19 color postcards adhesive-mounted on 20 pages and 1 slip, many with manuscript captions to adhesive-mounted labels. [24] leaves, 1 slip inserted to binding; [7] blank pages. Evidence of five removed photographs or postcards from final five pages. Binding with light edgewear, paper label lifting a bit with mild chipping to two corners. Some photographs with slight fading, one or two photographs and postcards beginning to lift but still secure. Clean and solid.

Seller Inventory # 45814