Japanese Book Design (Sōtei)
装丁 / 1900s– / Style / Book Arts
Japan's tradition of designing the book as a crafted object, from Yumeji's song sheets to Onchi's abstraction: slipcase, endpapers, title label and headband as one design — a book to be held before it is read.
Slipcase and title-label design / Endpaper and headband color / Jacket art by printmakers / Paper chosen for the hand
Dictionary entry
- Best used for
- Comparing primary sources and canonical works · Extracting principles that transfer to other media
- Type
- Observe the letters, signs and scale of reference works
- Composition
- Extract the one structure that governs gaze and information
- Material
- Verify the materials and behaviors specific to era, region and process
- Caution
- Don't reduce it to surface signs. Verify the context of era, region, technology and makers.
- Further study
- Onchi Kōshirō's Shosō / Takehisa Yumeji's bindings / contemporary designers like Kikuchi Nobuyoshi