The Monkey King
(Find me at 50 Watts Books.)
Shotaro Honda's illustrations for the 1939 children's book Son Goku (The Monkey King)
I assume this is an adaptation of bits of the Chinese epic Journey to the West.
The scans come from the database of the National Diet Library. I've previously featured this illustrator's Koganemaru the Dog.
Bio for Shotaro Honda (1893–1939) via Kodomo no kuni:
Honda was born in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka prefecture in 1893. In 1907, at the age of fourteen, he was accepted at the Taiheiyo Gakai Kenkyujo, a school of Western-style art affiliated with the Taiheiyo Gakai (Pacific Art Society Institute) established in 1904. He studied Western-style painting under Ishii Hakutei and Ishii Toraji. At the same time, he taught himself ukiyo-e by copying works by the masters. In 1910, he won first place in a cover design contest for the magazine Shonen sekai [Boy's World]. In 1913, he started illustrating for magazines published by Hakubunkan, including Yonen gaho [Toddler's Illustrated] and Yonen sekai [Infant's World], and for the magazine Shojo [Girls] printed by Jijishinpo. In the 1920s, he was active as an established illustrator for such prominent journals as Kodomo no kuni [Children's Land], Kodomo asahi [Children's Asahi], and Kodomo no tomo [The Child's Friend]. From 1928 to 1936 he illustrated for Shonen kurabu [Boy's Club]. He was also one of the artists recruited to illustrate the well-known Nihon dowa senshu [Collected Japanese Stories] (Maruzen Co., 1926-1936) and Nihon jido bunko [Library for Japanese Children] (Arusu, 1927-1930). Among Honda's leading works are Koganemaru [Koganemaru the Dog] by Iwaya Sazanami (1938), Songoku [The Monkey King] (1939), and Songoku to Hakkai [The Monkey King and Hakkai] (1940) in the Kodansha Picture Book series.
