HORINO, Masao (cover design) and ITAGAKI, Takao (text)

Kikai to Geijutsu to no Koryu / The Correspondence [or Cultural Exchange] between Machine and Art

Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1929. First Edition. Octavo. Cover design by Masao Horino, "the most important proponent of the shinko shashin movement." (Maggs). Text by Takao Itagaki, himself the foremost proponent of modernism in Japan. An anthology of images of modernist architecture and its precursors, reproducing work by Le Corbusier, Gropius, Mies van der Rohe; and with images and film stills by Man Ray and Hans Richter among others. No copies in OCLC. (Maggs 78). Long, presumably non-authorial inscription in Japanese on the front endpaper; a near fine copy in Bauhaus inspired textured linen boards with two small black and white photographs mounted on, in a very good (if worn) example of the fragile slipcase. The highspot of Japanese constructivist design between the wars.