Author: Itagaki Takao.
Title: [Atarashiki Geijutsu no Kakutoku].
Description: Tokyo, Tenjinsha 1930. 20x15cm publisher's illustrated wrapper and printed card case; 10,246pp including photo illustrations on 16 plates.Covers mottled as usual with copies that have stayed safe in their box, some browning and minor signs of use; quite good. ¶ First edition of this essay by the champion of modernism in Japan on the machine and new architecture and design, propounding his concept of "machine realism". This was a theme Itagaki pursued through a few books between 1929 and 1933.I think the cover shows a locomotive bursting out of some old world construction but it all reminds me of a crashing zeppelin. I can't find a designer's name.

Keywords: architecture art design modernism c20th Japan theory criticism progress reform showa modern