New Exhibition in Green Library

Features

Japanese Textile Design Books

 

An exhibition of woodblock-printed books produced ca. 1890–1940, Zuancho in Kyoto: Textile Design Books for the Kimono Trade is on display in the Peterson Gallery, Green Library, January 7 – April 16, 2008.

Special Collections began collecting zuancho (design idea books) in 2004 and over the past three years has acquired more than eighty volumes. The books were published in Kyoto beginning in the mid-Meiji period (1868–1912), when widespread availability of synthetic dyes imported from the West introduced bright, bold colors to the Japanese printing and textile industries.

The works on display demonstrate the transition that took place in surface design for kimono in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, from a painterly style to a graphic approach characterized by kinetic lines, geometric shapes, and abstraction of traditional Japanese themes drawn from nature. In addition to group publications of award-winning designs, such as Seiei (published by Unsodo, Kyoto, 1903–1906), the collection includes titles by known artists, such as Kamisaka Sekka, Kaigai Tennen, and Furuya Korin, a painter and designer whose use of geometric form and dynamic line devoid of the use of the brush helped to establish Japanese “modern design” in the first decade of the twentieth century. 

In addition to the volumes shown, a series of prints made from the original woodblocks for one of the books demonstrates the sequential addition of color in the woodblock-printing process.

A 40-page color catalogue, published in conjunction with the exhibition, is available for purchase in the Special Collections Reading Room.