[Tokei].

Yokomitsu Riichi.

About this Item

Tokyo, Sogensha 1935 (Showa 10). 20x14cm publisher's black cloth with mounted aluminium panel on the front; cloth covered slipcase with printed labels (cloth browned, knocked, used but solid). Aluminium panel with light scratching; white spine lettering a bit rubbed Some browning; a very good copy for this book. The aluminium panel, tied on with thread is often missing, usually battered and scratched; the spine is usually disintegrating with the white lettering gone. A sheet of paper signed by Yokomitsu Riichi and Sano Shigejiro mounted on the front fly. First edition; there were plenty more but not with this fabulously impractical binding. Yokomitsu was proclaimed a god of literature around 1930. At first mocking, it soon was used earnestly by his fans. Judging by his photos he could well have been a rock star in later generations. His friend Kawabata Yasunari wrote in 1933 that (crudely translated) "the chorus of praise by young people sounds like a song that might enshrine him in the hall of misfortune". His writings during the war earnt him the title of literary war criminal but he didn't live so long anyway. The cover is by Sano Shigejiro, painter and prodigious designer of covers for some fifty years from 1930 on. He was a friend of Yokomitsu and did the covers for a few of his books. He apparently studied with Matisse and hung out with Miro in the late thirties.

Seller Inventory # 11545

Bibliographic Details

• Title: [Tokei].
• Condition: very good