I wandered down to the antique street market in the village this morning, looking for an old book to alter into a sketchbook. But instead I found a little treasure that I certainly won't be altering. Now I would be grateful if someone who reads Japanese could tell me exactly what this book is.
I was very taken with the traditional binding.
It has 264 pages of examples of Japanese graphic art, possibly ancient logos. Some look like they could be patterns for kimono designs. Anyway the notan is beautiful and I'm thinking that there are many patterns here I would like to try in linocut, perhaps for bookplates.
They remind me a lot of mandalas.
I can't find a date of publication (that I can read) but there is a light pencil message in the front that saysShowa 38 and the date 1963. Can anyone help?
