`Hamonika Gakufu` [ハーモニカ楽譜]

Tokyo : Shochiku Kinema: Bikuta, etc., Showa 3-6 [1928-31]. A collection of 6 Japanese music scores for the harmonica, offset-printed covers stunningly designed in an early Showa style by notable illustrators such as Imai Hisamaro, Saito Kazo, etc. 4 pamphlets measuring 26.3x19cm, each pp. 4 – 6. (including wrappers), one pamphlet measuring 26.3 x 19cm, pp. 24 (plus illustrations); one pamphlet measuring 30.2×22.6cm, pp. 4 (including wrappers), light edgewear and soiling, overall very good. .

A nice group with covers representative of art deco design popular in Japan during the interwar years.

‘With the enhanced quality and wide distribution possibilities of mechanised colour printing, graphic designers, illustrators and photographers found themselves at the avant-garde of visual aesthetics and social trends. In the same manner that 1960s and 1970s record jackets were to inspire imaginations of that era, visually evocative music scores of the 1920s and 1930s represented the modan (modern) and youthful dreams of the time. Tunes echoing from cafe gramophones and playing in popular cinemas formed the soundtrack to modern daily life. Musical scores composed for the bohemian instruments of the young generation, the harmonica and ukulele, were produced by companies such as the Japanese subsidiary of the Victor Talking Machine Company and Japanese film studio Shochiku.’ – National Gallery of Victoria https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/essay/japanese-modernism-between-earthquake-and-war/