Sugiura Hisui is the designer who gave early twentieth-century Japan its modern commercial look, and this book lets you hear him tell the story himself. Published here in book form for the first time, his autobiography traces how a student trained in Japanese-style painting turned decisively toward design, and how that choice shaped an entire field.
The turning point he describes is vivid. After the 1900 Paris Exposition, his teacher Kuroda Seiki returned with souvenirs from a world saturated in Art Nouveau — architecture, furniture, jewelry, printed ornament, all in the new style. Hisui visited Kuroda's house almost daily to study and copy them, and from there his path was set. The chapters follow him through the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, years in Osaka, work at a newspaper, and then the long Mitsukoshi period in which he built the visual identity of Japan's most famous department store.
More than 300 illustrations accompany the text, so you can see the posters, advertisements, and ornamental work alongside the account of how they came about. A closing essay by Hiroshi Unno, titled "Sugiura Hisui: A Designer of the Dawn," places his career within the birth of Japanese graphic design.
The text is in Japanese, and the plates make the work legible on their own terms. Published by Sakuhinsha. Brand new, 2025 publication, 208 pages.
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