Thursday, October 25, 2007

Toying With Japan

japanese toy designs


japanese toy designs


japanese toy designs


japanese toy designs


japanese toy designs


japanese toy designs


japanese toy designs


japanese toy designs


japanese toy designs


japanese toy designs


japanese toy designs


japanese toy designs


japanese toy designs


japanese toy designs


japanese toy designs


japanese toy designs


Akita Prefectural Library in Japan have a series of six toy design illustration books produced between 1891 and 1913 by (I think) Yamada from Kyoto.

All the images above have been cleaned up to one extent or another. There is a further set of eight images which I cleaned but didn't post in this webshots album.

Are we seeing any European influence here at all do you think?

4 comments :

J M said...

What a wonderful collection! Many thanks for sharing it.
The website seems to be in Japanese only-- are you able to read it?

Karla said...

Those are delightful... I suppose that given the date there may be some European influence but they look nice and Japanese to me.

peacay said...

I know zero Japanese. I rely upon the online translators and am further stifled by having no Asian characters on this computers.

Daddy Types advise that we have: "Unaru no Tomo, ill.: Shimizu Harukaze; pub. 1891-1913, Yamada Geisou-do, Kyoto"

Yeah, my question about the Euro influence was kind of rhetorical. It's about the right time for design ideas to be seeping through to Japan. But I think you're right - nothing at all European stood out for me.

lotusgreen said...

utterly charming. i must say there's a cat in the auxillary album... let's just say i hope i never run into him in a dark alley

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