Takehisa Yumeji

1884-1934

The Ladies Graphic: Fireworks, August 1924
(Fujin Gurafu: Hanabi)

cover of The Ladies Graphic, vol. 1, no. 4; with woodblock print of a woman holding a sparkler by Yumeji; published by Kokusai Joho sha, August 1924

print 7 1/4 by 8 in; 18.5 by 20.3 cm
cover 12 3/4 by 9 5/8 in., 32.5 by 24.5 cm

Yumeji increasingly depended on commercial work following the Great Kanto Earthquake of September 1923. He produced woodblock printed cover illustrations, frontispieces, as well as essays and articles for The Ladies Graphic (Fujin Gurafu) magazine which was launched in May of 1924 by the Tokyo publisher Kokusai Johosha. It was a woman's lifestyle magazine offering information for contemporary women including articles on a wide range of subjects including art, architecture, theater, movies, cuisine, international news, and current fashions. The cover design followed the template of the French magazine, Art Goût Geauté Feuillets de L'élégance Féminine ('AGV'- Art, Taste, Beauty: Folios of Feminine Elegance), and the content was similarly framed. Other well-known print artists contributed designs to the magazine including Ito Shinsui (1898-1972, and Onchi Koshiro (1891-1955), who was a greatly admired and was deeply influenced by Yumeji.

Reference:
Nozomi Naoi, Sabine Schenk, & Maureen de Vries, Takehisa Yumeji, 2015, pp. 110-111, no. 39
Nozomi Naoi, Yumeji Modern: Designing the Everyday in Twentieth Century Japan, 2020, pp. 97-99, fig. 3.9
(inv. no. C-3233)

price: $500