Pioneering Japanese Graphic Designer

Kessaku kōkoku zuan daishūsei / hensansha Tsuji Katsumi.

傑作廣告圖案大集成 / 編纂者辻克己.  [A Comprehensive Collection of Masterpiece Advertising Designs / Compiled by Katsumi Tsuji].

Tōkyō,  Kōbunsha Shōwa 9 (1939).

(2) pages, 320 pages illustrations, (2) pages and 7 color plates.

27 x 20,5 cm. A linen-bound volume with a typographically designed cover, accompanied by a typographically designed slipcase.

EUR 240

5th edition, 1939. The content is identical to that of the first edition of 1934; only the slipcase has a different design.

Katsumi Tsuji (1892–1982) was a pioneering Japanese graphic designer, typographer and pattern designer (Zuan-ka). He was particularly active during the Taishō and early Shōwa periods (the 1920s and 1930s) – an era in which Japan was rapidly modernising and absorbing Western influences. In an era before computers and digital typefaces, Tsuji drew every single character, logo and advertising element entirely by hand. Tsuji liberated Japanese script (kanji and kana) from the centuries-old tradition of classical brush calligraphy. He elevated the construction of characters to an independent, modern design discipline. He was one of the first to systematically apply European avant-garde movements such as the Bauhaus, Constructivism and Art Deco to the Japanese writing system. He broke down complex characters into basic geometric shapes (circles, squares, thick bars).

With his comprehensive compendia and pattern books, he laid the foundations for the modern professional roles of advertising graphic designer and art director in Japan.Particularly noteworthy is a separate section devoted to the integration of advertising photography – which was innovative at the time – in place of purely hand-drawn illustrations.

The book cover features a three-dimensional ‘A/D’ logo. The abbreviation stands for the Art Directors Club. It is regarded as a historical precursor and a direct inspiration for the subsequent founding of what is now the Tokyo Art Directors Club (ADC).

Unlike the first edition, which we also stock, this slipcase is slightly scuffed with very minor imperfections in the cover; the spine of the slipcase is more heavily browned.

OCLC lists five copies outside Japan, all in the USA: University of Hawaii; Duke University; University of California Los Angels; Smith College; The Metropolitan Museum of Art (later edition 1936).