Odamaki (Columbine)

US$2,850.00

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Odamaki ["Columbine"] 

Dai Nihon Zuan Kyōkai Henshūbu [edited by], Ogiwara, Kunizō [editors represented by]; Komuro, Shinzō [essay by].

Kyōto: Gōmei Gaisha Unsōdō, Meiji 40 [1907].

One of the scarcest zuan ("design") publications on zuan pedagogy. The album features eight designs selected from illustrations exhibited by the Industrial Design Department of the Tokyo Higher Technical School at the Tokyo Industrial Exhibition in Ueno Park in 1907. The work also includes a one-page preface in typeface from the editors and a two-page typeface essay (by Komuro Shinzō, a teacher of design at the school) that describes the eight double-page colour woodblock-printed illustrations that follow. The title on the lower board reads Zuan no shiori ("A bookmark for designs"). The work may be one of only a few zuan publications to focus on zuan pedagogy. Only one copy traced in OCLC, in Japan's National Diet Library (NDL). No other copies traced in major Japanese databases.

The following quote is from Scott Johnson's "Zuan pattern books: the glory years" (Andon 100: 5-75 (2015)):

     "The photographs of late Meiji zuan classes, both at the MOMAK and the KIT Archives' shows, were too fuzzy to actually show how students were taught to make zuan. However, an Unsōdō zuan publication, commissioned by a Tokyo industrial arts school, gives some delicious insights. The colour woodcut design book is called Odamaki (Columbine), and it was created to publicize what in 1907 was known as the Tōkyō Kōtō Kōgyō Gakkō (Tokyo Higher Industrial School).

     The book begins with a naturalistic depiction of a fIowering columbine [...] Successive illustrations show stylistic variations of buds, flowers, Ieaves and stems, creating a vocabulary of images [...] These exploded parts are then duplicated into mirror images, changed in colour, and otherwise manipulated into various shapes to create appealing designs [...] Further pages show how to repeat single elements to unify a design, while shifting spatial orientation to create variety [...] FinaIIy, there are two examples of embellishing ceramics with columbine designs [...].

     There may be other examples of published zuan pedagogy, but Odamaki is the only one I have seen. It was published by Unsōdō, but as a one-off commission, and was not reprinted."  

One concertina-bound (orijō) volume, complete. Original boards worn and with losses, scrapes, and marks. Sticker removal to upper right of upper board. Presumed original daisen title pasted to upper board, different title woodblock-printed to paper covering lower board. Occasional stains, offsetting, and minor soiling to leaves. Some gutters reinforced with washi paper. Hinges occasionally weak. A few tears to gutters and small stains to endpapers. [10 unnumbered leaves]. 31.2 x 22.7 cm. 

Odamaki (Columbine)
Price: $2,850.00 (USD)