Roku Redux
(Find me at 50 Watts Books.)
"Rays of the Sun in the Afternoon"
Rokuro Taniuchi (or Roku, as he often signs) is one of my favorite illustrators and I've featured him many times over the years.
These images from the 1950s are again courtesy of Jimoto and his stunning site Dassaishooku.
My note from the first post I did on Roku in October 2008:
I discovered the incredible Japanese illustrator Rokuro Taniuchi (1921–81) while searching for Tadanori Yokoo books. Yokoo is listed as the editor for this profusely-illustrated book—Taniuchi Rokuro Gensouki (Shinshindo, 1981). The book seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth, and I feel incredibly lucky to have found it.
Through some creative googling of Japanese characters, I did manage to dig up an archive [link now dead]. Comparing the book to this site, I discovered that many of the images were originally made for the Weekly Shincho. I think others must surely be illustrations for children's books. The artist dated some of the works: late 40s / early 50s.
The book includes an insert promoting the "Unicorn Color Series." Has anyone heard of this series?
I plan to do another post from this book—it is too good not to share.
Update: Paul McCann kindly translated the captions!
"A Night Where a Raid Seems Likely"
(Paul says: "untranslatable pun, 晩 is just 'evening' but looks like 日 day + 兔 rabbit")
"Distributing Whale Meat"
"The Aching Orphan"
"Bathhouse"
"Dandelions in Sunamachi" (Paul adds, "real place, literally 'Sand Town'")
"The Story of the Slave Trader" (and Paul adds "???")
"The Day the Prostitute Died"
I've featured these last three images before but I love them and Jimoto's scans are better so here they are again:
"The Magnetic Dolls Bought at the Fair"
"The Autumn the War Ended"
"The Frightening Road Home"
This post first appeared on April 30, 2014 on 50 Watts
