Vibrant, progressive and bold: graphic designs of Japanese modernism in pictures | Art and desig

 Posted on September 11, 2024  |  7 minutes  |  1446 words  |  Larita Shotwell

Vibrant, progressive and bold: graphic designs of Japanese modernism – in pictures

Between the Great Kantō earthquake of 1923 and the calamities of the Pacific War (1942–45), Tokyo and Osaka developed into some of the world’s most vibrant and modern metropolises. A new generation of creative and financially liberated young people – playfully known as moga and mobo, or modern girls and modern boys – spurred a movement that energised Japanese innovation.

Japanese Modernism, which opens at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne on 28 February, investigates this period with fashion, decorative arts, popular culture and design. Wayne Crothers and Annika Aitken – senior and assistant curators of Asian art respectively – handpicked posters that demonstrate the evolution of a design aesthetic which tells the story of a changing Japan

Wayne Crothers and Annika Aitken

Main image: From Nihonbashi (1930), colour offset lithograph by Imai Hisamaro. Photograph: Imai Hisamaro/National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Thu 27 Feb 2020 16.30 GMT Last modified on Sun 1 Mar 2020 22.00 GMT

  • Landslide in Front of the Hodogaya Tunnel on the Tōkaidō (1924) by Oda Kanchō, colour woodblock

    The Great Kantō earthquake of 1923 is remembered as one of the most terrifying calamities in Japan’s history. Registering at a magnitude of 7.9, it struck on 1 September at 11.58am as households were lighting their stoves for lunch. Fires whipped across densely populated Tokyo and Yokohama; more than 140,000 died and 700,000 were left homeless. A year later, Japanese publishing house Shōnen Gahōsha commissioned a series of prints based on eyewitness sketches and accounts.

  • The Grand Yokohama Exposition (1936) colour lithograph

    Celebrating the city’s anniversary of recovery from the quake, the Grand Yokohama Exposition was held in Yamashita Park: a foreshore area reclaimed using city rubble from the disaster. Over a two-month period it attracted more than three million visitors, with attractions including an aquarium, a ‘children’s land’, an American rodeo and a motorcycle circus. In this poster, a ship’s funnel represents Yokohama’s status as an international port, with the exposition’s iconic tower flying Yokohama’s flag.

  • Tokyo Mitsukoshi Clothing Store (1927), by Koike Iwao, colour lithograph

    Founded as kimono seller Echigoya, in 1673, Mitsukoshi became Japan’s first department store in 1904 and grew to be emblematic of modernity, with its new building in 1914 featuring Japan’s first elevator. Having been destroyed by the 1923 quake, this poster announces the ‘completion of recovery construction’. It features the new Mitsukoshi building’s modernist lines, iconic entrance lions and modern women wearing kimono. Koike Iwao was part of the Shichinin-sha (group of seven) graphic designers, formed by Sugiura Hisui.

  • To the Sea (c. 1930) by Shabano Kiyosaku, colour woodblock

    Swimming and seaside outings became a popular getaway from the bustle of city life. Designed for the Ministry of Railways, using the swimming athlete and film actress Mikoshiba Hatsuko as the model, the work was deemed unsuitable for the ministry’s image – but eventually purchased by a private railway company, Keisei, to advertise its water park. The poster is unusual in that it was produced using traditional woodblock printing, rather than lithography, evidenced by subtle woodgrain in the blue background.

  • Jazz Dancer (1934) by Kobayakawa Kiyoshi, colour woodblock

    As photography in Japan became increasingly popular during the late 19th century, the traditional art of woodblock printing began to decline. During the 1920s and 1930s, artists Ito Shinsui and Kobakawa Kiyoshi worked with the publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō (1885–1962) to become leaders of the shin-hanga (new prints) movement, which revitalised the refined ukiyo-e print techniques of the Edo period (1600–1868).

  • Early Spring (1931) by Itō Shinsui, colour woodblock

    This trend furthered the genre of bijin-ga (‘pictures of beautiful people’), established by the late-18th century masters Kitagawa Utamaro and Torii Kiyonaga, by featuring women of the modern era.

  • The Cabaret Hostess’s Song (1930) by Saitō Kazō, colour offset

    Songs from popular movies and those played on cafe gramophones formed the soundtrack to Japanese modern life in the 1920s and 1930s. Companies such as the Japanese subsidiary of Victor Talking Machine Company and Japanese film studio Shochiku transformed popular tunes into music scores for the fashionable and bohemian instruments, the harmonica and ukulele.

  • From Nihonbashi (1930) by Imai Hisamaro, colour offset lithograph

    Saito Kazo and Imai Hisamaro stand out as two music-score designers whose compositions of moga (modern girls) – with bob hairstyles, half-shaded faces and alluring eyes set against geometric shapes, spiralling lines and new fonts – pushed the boundaries of contemporary graphic design. One of Hisamaro’s works combines illustration and photography to depict a modern woman confidently gazing over Tokyo’s fashionable Nihonbashi Bridge district and Mitsukoshi department store.

  • The Ladies’ Graphic (Fujin Gurafu) (October 1924) by Takehisa Yumeji (illustrator), colour woodblock, offset lithograph

    A society with high literacy rates, and an insatiable appetite for the latest information, resulted in an extensive range of periodical magazines – positioning graphic designers, illustrators and photographers at the forefront of art and social trends. Women’s magazines and journals were the most popular, and between 1911–1930 more than 200 titles were launched. They encouraged individual thought and played an important role in the construction of the modern Japanese state.

  • The Ladies’ Graphic (Fujin Gurafu) (January 1927) by Takehisa Yumeji (illustrator), colour woodblock, offset lithograph

    Fujin Gurafu was published by Kokusai Johosha from 1924 to 1928 and modelled on the iconic French magazine Art-Goût-Beauté, published in Paris from 1920 to 1933. Produced for women, Fujin Gurafu presented international news as well as the latest ideas in fashion, beauty, housekeeping and lifestyle. It was primarily printed in black and white, but had tipped-in colour illustrations by leading artists such as Takehisa Yumeji, which its readers eagerly anticipated each edition.

  • Children’s Land (Kodomo no kuni) (February 1931) by Okamoto Kiichi (illustrator), colour offset lithograph

    During the Edo period (1600–1868), education in Shogunate-run schools and Buddhist temples resulted in a literacy rate in Japanese major cities of more than 50%, and a large publishing industry using traditional woodblock printing techniques. From 1900 Japan established free and compulsory education for all children, which led to a literacy rate of more than 90% and contributed to the country’s rapid modernisation during the 1920s and 1930s.

  • Children’s Land (Kodomo no kuni) (December 1928) by

    Takei Takeo (illustrator), colour offset lithographKodomo no kuni was established during the free-spirited Taisho period (1912–26), when educators advocated a focus on a child’s individuality. The magazine pioneered a new genre of artistic publishing for children devoted to the nourishment of young minds. As Japanese artists experimented in the modernist styles, Kodomo no kuni was a platform through which illustrators could present some of their most ambitious work, and fast became known as a primary publication for progressive illustration.

  • Asahi weekly lifestyle magazine (January 1939), colour offset lithograph

    Established in 1922 and continuing to this day, Asahi Weekly is Japan’s oldest and longest running weekly magazine pitched to family members of all ages. These editions, published between 1934 and 1939, sold for between 15 and 30 sen each (about 410 yen, or $5.50 today).

  • Asahi weekly lifestyle magazine, colour offset lithograph

    The covers feature young, confident, modern women, with the setting and fashion matching the season of each edition’s release: boating and swimming in summer, hiking and outdoor activities in spring and autumn, and skiing and New Year’s celebrations in winter.

  • Asahi weekly lifestyle magazine, colour offset lithograph

    Content included articles and pictorials on travel, film, celebrities, art, music, sport, short stories and cooking.
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