HACHIMORI (Kotaro) &
KAWAKAMI (Sumio), illus.
Kotan enkin [Kotan's perspective – two copies]
Kawakami as a designer
HACHIMORI (Kotaro) &
KAWAKAMI (Sumio), illus.
Kotan enkin [Kotan's perspective – two copies]
A lovely example of Kawakami Sumio’s more commercial practice. The present set comprises two variant bindings of the same title, designed by Kawakami, with an Ainu theme.
The book itself is a collection of poetry by Hachimori Torataro (1914-1999). Hachimori was born in the northern prefecture of Iwate. In 1941 he moved to China and participated in Shanghai Bungaku, a Japanese-run literature publication based in Shanghai. After WWII he moved back to Japan and continued to publish literary criticism, founding the Nihon Miraiha ‘Japan Futurism’ journal in 1947. His new base was Sapporo, even farther north than Iwate. While there, he grew an interest in Ainu culture and conducted research on Ainu folklore and literature. The present book is his poetry about Ainu culture. In places he has used Ainu language, with helpful footnotes to explain each word.
Kawakami, too, had an interest in the Ainu and self-published a number of books on this theme. Like Hachimori, he moved to Sapporo after the War and so it is likely that the two met there. The resulting book is a beautiful collaboration between an artist and writer who both had a profound admiration for Ainu people.
Very rare. 3 copies in OCLC (NDL Tokyo, UCLA, Hawaii). It is not clear from these records which bindings are in which institution.
