Maggs Bros.

A limited, posthumous edition of Kataku no Hito, or ‘The Man of the Burning House’, the last novel by celebrated writer Dan Kazuo (1912-1976), designed by artist Tsukasa Osamu (1936–present).

Kataku no hito is an autobiographical novel which follows protagonist Katsuo Kazuo; husband, father and celebrated novelist. Katsuo decides to leave his wife, falling in love with another woman, but misfortune follows. The story was initially serialised by Shincho magazine over a 20-year period from 1955, before it was first published in book-form by Shinchosha in 1975. The book garnered him the Yomiuri literature prize in the same year. It was turned into a TV series in 1979 and later the Toei studio produced a film adaptation in 1986 starring Ogata Ken.

The project to make a limited edition of Dan’s famous book was underway by the time he died, and amazingly each copy contains his signature. It is not clear exactly when Shinchosha had planned to publish, but the resulting book came out in 1979, three years after he passed. The book design was done by Tsukasa Osamu, an artist who had designed many covers for the leading writers of the time (including Mishima, Oe Kenzaburo and Dazai Osamu). The limited edition shows Tsukasa to the best of his abilities – the subtle design on the cardboard case, his choice of bright red velvet and a bronze plate for the box and the carefully hand-painted binding make for a delightfully surprising experience when unboxing the book. The book then opens to a limited edition etching by Tsukasa followed by vignettes at the opening of each chapter.

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