The first of Serizawa's self-published books; an illustrated guide to katazome stencil dyeing, for which he was most known. This is no.7 of a total edition of 115 copies, of which nos.1-50 were bound with a special case.
Serizawa Keisuke (1895–1984) is regarded as one of the preeminent Japanese craftspeople of the 20th century, having received Living National Treasure status in 1956. Born into a family of kimono merchants in Shizuoka, Serizawa’s childhood was spent surrounded by exquisite textiles. Gifted with creativity from a young age, he aspired to become a painter. However, when his family’s company burned down, he returned to his textile roots and studied katazome stencil dyeing and graphic design in the early 1930s. In particular, he was drawn to bingata from the Ryukyu islands, which are a form a katazome.
Serizawa is also remembered as an influential figure in the development of mingei (folk craft) theory, having formed close friendships with Soetsu Yanagi, Shoji Hamada and Bernard Leach. It was Yanagi’s essay Kogei no michi (The Way of Crafts) in 1927 that initially sparked Serizawa’s interest in mingei ideas. Together they published the first issue in the series Kogei (Craft) in 1931, bound in katazome (stencil-dyed) cloth by Serizawa.
The present work masterfully combines Serizawa’s unique visual sensibilities with his love of traditional crafts. Though he had designed book bindings and contributed illustrations to publications before, it is particularly poignant that he made katazome textiles the subject of his first self-published work.
Serizawa's most known works typically feature bold, graphic shapes that fill the space (be they pictorial or typographic). The present title beautifully shows his earlier artistic style, which is far more sparse in its composition. In the book Serizawa celebrates the craft of stencil-dyed textiles with stencil-printed illustrations, both of which he achieved to an exceptional standard.
Following this work, Serizawa continued to produce books that celebrated traditional Japanese crafts. In 2023, the Keisuke Serizawa Museum in Shizuoka (where he was born) celebrated his life as a book-maker with an exhibition of 20 out of the 50 books he produced. The present title featured prominently, as a highlight of his bibliography.
Only two copies in OCLC (National Diet Library & Library of Congress).
