創作圖案集 Sosaku Zuanshu (Creative Design Collection) [COMPLETE IN 12 PORTFOLIOS, WITH 96 PLATES]

東京 (Tokyo): 國民圖書株式會社 (Kokumin Tosho), 1926. First edition. Softcover. g+ to near fine. 12 light brown/ beige portfolios with text printed in black on white paper labels pasted on the front covers. The fully complete series of designs and patterns edited and compiled by Japanese designer, painter and color theorist Wada Sanzo (1883-1967).

This extremely scarce collection contains all 12 of the individual parts (portfolios), each containing 8 numbered plates, for a total of 96 plates in. Each plate measuring 10.5 x15" and contains at least 4 designs, so the total number of designs in the collection is no less 384. All of these images display inventive combinations of modernist and western design with traditional Japanese and other Asian design elements, all with vibrant color schemes. These prints have been said to be inspired by the Sōsaku-hanga movement of the period. The wide range and combinations of influences displayed here include 20th century avant-garde abstraction, surrealism, natural themes, animals, classical Greco-Roman styles, impressionism, Japanese woodblock prints, and classical Chinese art, as well as floral and botanical motifs. In addition to numerous images created by Wada himself, there are contributions from many other artists and designers, many of whom studied under Wada, including ceramicist and draftsman Sakujiro Terao (寺尾作次郎, 1898-1984), Yamagata Komataro (山形駒太郎, 1886-1978), Kinoshita Kuni (木下邦) and Yamada Shozo (山田正三). Nearly all plates are in color, with a few in b/w. Each design is captioned with a title and artist credit in Japanese. The images are finely printed lithographically and in offset reproductions, or combinations thereof.

Text in Japanese.

Portfolios, with light rubbing to extremities. Minor to light staining, smudges or markings to a few of the portfolios. Most plates and images are quiet clean, with occasion instances of light water stains or foxing to plates, usually in the margins only. Light age toning to some plates. Portfolios in good+ to very good+, plates in very good- to near fine condition overall. 和田三造 (Sanzo Wada, 1883-1967) was a Japanese painter, printmaker, color theorist and costume designer. After many years with an educational background in both Japanese and western painting, he became a successful artist and in 1927 became a member of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts (now Japan Academy of Fine Arts). In the same year he founded the Japan Standard Color Association, out of what he perceived as a need for the standardization of color in Japan. Later in the 1950s, and credited as Mitsuzô Wada, he worked as a consultant and color designer for feature films. He won the Academy Award in 1954 for his work as costume designer for director Teinosuke Kinugasa's acclaimed samurai period drama 地獄門, aka "Gate of Hell" (1953).

*A reprint of the set was issued in 1977.