KAWAKAMI (Sumio).
Ranpu no uta [Song of the lamp]
Nostalgic poetry on Kawakami's beloved topic
A beautiful little poetry book by Kawakami Sumio on one of his favourite subjects: lamps.
Kawakami had a lifelong fascination with lamps. Growing up in Yokohama, a bustling port city, he saw lots of foreign goods in shops as they were being imported. At home his family owned both Japanese and Western-style lamps and as an adult he developed his own collection of antique examples. Though Kawakami is most known for his print-making, he was also a talented poet and many of his books combine his elegant writing style with paired-back woodblock illustrations. In the present book, Kawakami has written a nostalgic poem of his memories with lamps; how they remind him of his mother and grandmother, and the way they would cast large, scary shadows.
Very rare. No copies in OCLC.
