Japanese Design: A History of Visual Culture Seen through Characters

About the productJapanese

How has Japanese language been written in characters? From ancient Chinese characters engraved on metal to the digital fonts that appeared in the 1980s, this book examines the evolution of Japanese character expression over the past 2000 years from a design perspective.

The first half of the exhibition explains how Japanese characters have been written over the ages, including the kanji found in the Kojiki, the kana that appears in the Manyoshu, the continuous and scattered writing in the Kokin Wakashū, and books from the Edo period in which pictures and text are written on the same plane. The second half of the exhibition describes how the way characters are arranged has changed with technological advances, including the introduction of metal type and letterpress printing in the Meiji period, the practical application of phototypesetting, and the appearance of digital fonts.

This ambitious work uses a wealth of illustrations (approximately 160 pieces) by the author, a graphic designer, to explain how Japanese characters and typesetting have changed over time due to culture and technology.

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Product Information

Publisher Book & Design

release date 2024 / 04 / 17

Part numberKDSG10114A-9784909718112

Specification A5 size / Hardcover / 176 pages

Notes

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