The influence of common East Asian woodblock printing on Japanese culture is immeasurable. In particular, multicolor printing represented by Ukiyo-e, which has evolved uniquely in Japan, is acclaimed for representing Japanese culture overseas. The basis of woodblock printing technology is the wooden board. This research will attempt to scientifically reveal the craftsmanship left on the wood board using 3D measurements (X-Ray, CT scanners and 3D high-definition digitizers), X-ray fluorescence analysis, and image analysis. As for the craftsmen’s elaborate techniques and knowledge that do not appear in two-dimensional images or printed materials, as well as published time-series information, since wooden boards are three-dimensional objects, threedimensional measurement is effective for collecting and clarifying such information more clearly. Taking the wooden board and printed book archived in the Nara University Library and Nara University Museum as a research object, this paper focuses on the presentation of the Yagen-bori shape, the level of the craftsman’s work status, the carving device, the technique of wooden board production, 3D printer analysis, joint technique verification, assessment of the wooden board production process, pigment identification, and the coincidence of main and color plates by the above-mentioned scientific research method.

This paper is a component of modern Kyoto’s design education research and aims to clarify how specialized education in design later influenced a person’s position in the industry.
The case that will be examined is that of Heitaro Mizuki (?-1938), along with the Textile Art Workshop and the design research group “Akanekai,” which were created in the Marubeni Shoten, Ltd., Kyoto store where he worked.
Regarding the Textile Art Workshop, the author analyzed the changes in the exhibited pieces and their purposes thereof during the period 1930 to 1939, in which Mizuki worked as head of design in his branch and examined tendencies over this period. It was concluded that the group considered popular fads but did not rely on mass production, and created items with both a high level of technical skill and aesthetic sense.
Regarding the Akanekai, the author analyzed 533 pieces from the “Akanekai Genga.” The Akanekai worked as an organization within a corporation, and employed creators of both Japanese and Western paintings, carvings and more, providing a wide variety of genres; as such, they were much different from most designer groups. While the Textile Art Workshop aimed to turn the Kimono into an art form through technique, Akanekai focused on gathering ideas and attempting new designs.

Claude-François Ménestrier (1631–1705), a member of the Society of Jesus in 17th century France, examined expressions of image, such as emblems or dance, and summarized the outcome of his research as the “Philosophy of Image.” In the classical theory of image—the paradigm of which is “imitation”—the replicating image should coincide with the original as closely as possible, and the former cannot avoid hierarchical subordination to the latter. Ménestrier, however, presents a unique theory of image that emphasizes difference between the original and its imitation, rather than likeness. In his 1694 essay, La philosophie des images énigmatiques (The Philosophy of Enigmatic Images), which is based on traditional and theological concepts of image, he concludes that image conceals God.
Ménestrier focuses on the artists’ ingenious *esprit and art that aim to distinguish the **signifiant/God from the ***signifié/image rather than associate them, lending mysteriousness to the image. Furthermore, he defines artists’ ingenious *esprit and art, which obscure the *signifié, as the factors that allow the image’s creation. As a result, the theological concept of image, which constructs the absolute hierarchy between God and image, is reorganized, and the value of image is placed not on the original but rather on the *esprit and art of the artist who creates the concealing image. Ménestrier’s theory of image that centers on the artist is featured as one of the origins of the modern conception of the image.
* “esprit” could be translated as “wit” or “spirit” in English.
** “signifiant” could be translated as “signifier” in English (a linguistic term).
*** “signifié” could be translated as “signified” in English (a linguistic term).

In this research project, I will investigate the role of Kiyoshi Awazu in the history of graphic design by concentrating on his work in architecture and photography. During the 1950’s and the 1970’s, when Awazu was active, the function of designers was expanding as national projects, such as the Tokyo Olympics and the World Expo, were being developed one after another. Most importantly, Awazu continually wrestled with the question “What is design?” throughout his life, writing incessantly on the matter while continuing production of his work. Awazu was engaged in a wide range of artistic genres such as architecture, movie set design and performance, as well as painting, sculpture, print making, photography and film, after his beginnings in graphic design. In this study, focusing in particular on his work in architecture and photography, and following today’s notion of what “design” is, we will analyze Awazu’s overall view that works and materials are continuously connected on multiple levels. From there we will make a hypothesis that proposes a universality of design. Our research was conducted through comprehensive artistic analysis, by Meruro Washida in the area of architecture, and by Ritsuko Takahashi in the area of photography. Ritsuko Takahashi compiled the full study.

In the ancient Greek world, sports were very popular, hence athletes were frequently depicted on pottery, especially those items made for symposia, or banquets. Pottery customers as well as participants in sports were basically from the same social level, i.e. the elite class, which helps to explain the popularity of sports and athletes as vase decoration.
In Athens, the most important centre for production of Greek painted pottery, the representation of sports and athletes began in the first half of the 6th century B.C. and continued for two centuries. Meanwhile, the iconography of athletes changed constantly, but the wide range of iconography was never really investigated from the perspective of art history. This provides even more material to the study of sports and social history. This may be because painters at that time, much like today, were regarded as craftsmen, not as artists. However, it may be possible to consider viewing new images as a mode of communication between the painter, his customers and society. This article aims firstly to demonstrate the chronological variation of images with athletes during the 5th century B.C., and secondly, to examine the role of the painters as ‘trendsetters’.

This research paper explores how the poster genre in Japan developed and evolved over the period between the opening of Japan to the West (1854) and the pre-1945 Showa era, by examining and verifying related historical, cultural, and technical phenomena. Chapter 1 lays out the process of this study, including how it began and was carried out, along with the scope of what was studied. Chapter 2 addresses posters of the Meiji period (1868–1912) while chapter 3 examines those of the Taisho period (1912–26), followed by a study in chapter 4 of those from the early Showa period before the wars (1926–31). These three chapters discuss particular characteristics observed in the posters of each time period. The 5th and final chapter summarizes the content considered thus far and proposes future research plans.
To summarize, by researching this period within the history of posters—from the opening of Japan's commerce with the West through the pre-1945 Showa era—this paper reveals the changes that posters underwent while being affected by various domestic and overseas influences in terms of both technique and design. Japan’s traditional printing culture, dating back to the Edo period (1603–1868), is still evident in the production of posters during the early Meiji period. In the Taisho period, Japanese corporations, as well as the processing and printing companies making posters for them, began advancing their businesses overseas, leaving no small influence on posters subsequently produced in those overseas locations. During the wartime period (1931–45), propaganda posters were vigorously created to play a central role in the media's efforts to maintain and strengthen a wartime structure in Japan. These findings, in particular, deal with issues that were never discussed to any extent until now, and can therefore be considered a distinct achievement of this paper.

Abstract This research aims to create Japanese typefaces and a Japanese typeface customization system for readers with developmental dyslexia.
We first extracted the characteristics of the Latin typefaces designed for readers with dyslexia, through quantitative and qualitative methods, and mapped them to Japanese typefaces according to common elements to define the requirements for Japanese typefaces designed for readers with dyslexia. Then we semi-automatically created the first Japanese typefaces for readers with dyslexia, LiS Font, by manipulating outlines of existing open source fonts with scripts. Finally, we conducted an evaluative experiment regarding the readability and legibility of the newly created typefaces. The results indicate that (i) typefaces have an impact on both objective and subjective measures of readability; (ii) that the impact of typefaces on subjective readability is easier to observe; (iii) that readers with dyslexia consider LiS Font more readable; (iv) that readers without dyslexia consider the standard typefaces more readable, and (v) that symptoms of dyslexia may affect subjective readability by the readers.
These results indicate the efficacy of LiS Font and the validity of the requirements for Japanese typefaces designed for readers with dyslexia. Initially, at least, the results show that readers with different symptoms of dyslexia may perceive varying characteristics of typefaces as readable, thus implying the necessity of a typeface customization system in order to meet the needs of those readers.
We intend to develop the customization system in future research.

This essay examines how imagination in popular culture narratives with medical settings can, in practice, improve medical administration and its settings. Currently, Japanese manga depicts a wide variety of medical branches, including obstetrics and gynecology, anesthesiology and pathology. This new trend toward highly subdivided branches has developed by providing relevant information to its readers. Furthermore, it is expected to bridge a communication gap between medical specialists and their patients. In Japan's aging society, it is not easy to ignore the medical industry, nor is it easy to stay up-to-date with specialized medical findings. Patients and their families are often suddenly faced with a critical situation with no preparation for it. While they consider such situations as extraordinary, for medical specialists the hospital world is the daily workplace. Given the current popularity of medical narratives in popular culture, the viewpoints of both patients and medical specialists require tools to fill in the gaps.
In the context of cultural studies, an examination of medical narratives reveals many sociocultural problems, including centralization, medical crises under pressure from foreign policies, and competing global pharmaceutical/medical industries. The imagination in popular culture's medical narratives could develop the power of understanding, bridging communication gaps, even improving public opinion and changing administrative structure. This essay examines the potential of medical narratives by focusing on the features of manga media.

A large number of posters by Japanese designers are part of museums’ collections outside Japan, but no investigations about criterion and backgrounds to their acquisitions have been conducted in details. For this reason, it is difficult to carry out a formal examination of the acceptance of Japanese graphic design overseas.
This report is comprised of a compilation of surveys and research on Japanese posters held by two art and education institutions in New York, USA. The targets were the collections of the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum and the Herb Rubalin Study Center of Design and Typography at Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.
The author conducted research on graphic design at both institutions from 2014 to 2016, and learned that they hold many posters by Japanese designers in their collections. Although curators at each organization were aware of their existence, there was no one specializing in Japanese graphic design, and because there were no plans for exhibition or use of them in the near future, there was no active research in progress. Therefore, in collaboration with these two research collaborators, the curators from the two institutions, the following three goals were set and basic research on their poster collections was conducted.
The first goal is to understand the background of collection formation. This includes understanding how Japanese design and related materials are collected at the subject organizations, and examining the selection criteria and policies of each organization. The second is to develop a research partnership. The author thus becomes a satellite surveyor in order to build a more substantial work database and share knowledge and information with the research collaborators. The third is to explore and propose potential uses of the institutions’ posters in the future, as well as the addition of new works to both collections.
The first two goals listed above will primarily comprise this report. The third will be summarized as part of the conclusion of this article.

The visual image of the Korean ghost Quisin is very similar to that of the Japanese ghost Yurei. In fact, these two supernatural entities are similarly depicted as female ghosts with long and untidy hair, and attired in traditional white clothing. Several scholars have already pointed out that many features of Quisin were derived from Yurei’s depiction in Japanese paintings and horror movies, which spread to the Korean Peninsula in either the colonial (1910–45) or postwar period (1945–60’s).
By looking back at the Japanese Edo period (1603–1868), this study will explore how Yurei were represented in Kabuki, a traditional Japanese theatrical form at that time; from this vantage point, it will then examine how Yurei evolved in Kabuki, first into its signature image embraced by the Japanese people, and subsequently into the form of the Korean people’s Quisin.
Firstly, we will look into the visual image of Yurei and its representation in Kabuki employing a variety of materials, including ukiyo-e, traditional Japanese painting. Secondly, we will look into how the image of Yurei was then adopted in Korea during the colonial or post-war period, a premise based mainly on evidence in newspapers at that time. Thirdly and lastly, we will focus on the image of Quisin in the Korean movie “The Public Cemetery under the Moon” (1967), which will indicate that a number of Quisin features originated in the Japanese Yurei.

The Japanese government has sought to promote industry and trade since the beginning of the Meiji period. British India became an important trading partner for Japan, importing raw silk and other cloth, as well as matches and other miscellaneous goods during the Meiji period. Registered trademarks have been documented in Shohyo koho (Trademark Gazette) by the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce Patent Office. It was important to Japanese agencies and manufacturers, therefore, to research promotional designs and use trademarks attractive to Indian consumers. This paper explores this social impact on the development of trademark designs, based on research activity on the Indian market conducted by Japanese agencies.
British India was considered a godly country, and market research on the country was given high priority by the Japanese government. It has been suggested that Indian agencies served as art directors, instructing Japanese designers on their preferred images to use for the Indian market. At the same time, the Japanese government was urging Japanese artists to create a “welcoming” trademark designed specifically for the Indian market. Religious images from India in trademark registrations reflect these research findings, as well as the era’s enthusiasm for designing “welcoming” images for promoting trade with India.

Research on architectural exhibitions has advanced in recent years by holding symposiums and publishing academic books on their findings. However, exhibitions held after 2010 are barely referenced, and any discussion on methods to display various materials is insufficient. Therefore, in this research, I visited several important architectural biennales and exhibitions organized by major museums of architecture since 2014. Based on this field survey, I composed a critique of their concept of displaying diverse materials in terms of graphic design. In this essay, exhibitions such as “Making Heimat” at the German pavilion of the Venice Biennale International Architectural Exhibition in 2016 (designed by Something Fantastic), “Does Permanence Matter? Ephemeral Urbanism” at the Architekturmuseum der Technische Universität München in 2018 (by m-a-u-s-e-r), and “Architecture Itself and Other Postmodernist Myths” (by Chad Kloepfer) at the Canadian Center for Architecture (Montreal) in 2018–19 are analyzed. From these examples, we can conclude that the following traits are typical of recent graphic design tendencies for architectural exhibitions: in some cases, the display design is developed to complement the concept of graphic design (German pavilion); for research-based architectural exhibitions that tend to be two dimensional, insertion of objects and manipulation of the exhibition space may take place in order to ensure the three-dimensionality aspect of the visitor’s experience (Munich); and finally, in order to complete an installation composed of exhibits, three dimensionality could be added to the text (Montreal).

This paper studies the development of graphics culture and its historical changes in the cultural region of Yugoslavia, from the Interwar period through World War II, and on to postwar Socialist Yugoslavia.
The first chapter introduces the origins of Yugoslavia’s graphics culture in the 1930’s, during the artistic movements of three major cultural centers in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia: Belgrade, Zagreb and Ljubljana.
The second chapter discusses the participation of Yugoslav artists in the Partisan movement (People’s Liberation War) during WWII, through activities originating in illegal printing shops. In this chapter special focus is placed on the fact that Yugoslav artists didn't only participate in the making of Agitprop posters, but also preserved free cultural expression in the resistance movement through their creation of works such as graphics portfolios.
The third chapter analyzes the process through which wartime graphics culture evolved into historical collective memory in postwar Socialist Yugoslavia when it was first introduced into museums, including the newly opened Museum of Illegal Printing Shops. This chapter also examines the process of graphics culture’s role change in the postwar period, from graphics as a social realism art medium under the strong influence of the Soviet Union up until the mid-1950’s, into a new artistic medium that began assimilating Western influence as a consequence of Yugoslavia’s new role as founder and leading country of the Non-Allied Movement during the Cold War.

There are many different old folktales in various regions of Japan. These stories have been passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth in local languages. They work as a medium for inheriting local languages and cultures.
In recent years, a good many of these folktales have been lost, thus endangering the survival of the minor languages in which they are told. In this research, our team has been creating multilingual (local languages, Japanese and English) folktale picturebooks to be archived. From this trial, we propose a process for the succession of the local languages and cultures through a manner of action research.
For the creation of these picturebooks, I joined the project as a designer and illustrator, wherein I have been researching a variety of folktales and their provenance. At the same time, I’ve been creating picturebooks which depict local cultures and history through visual communication design. With the collaboration of linguists, native island speakers and designers/illustrators, we were able to upgrade the quality of content, visual presentation, readability and usability. It would be helpful to expand this project and introduce these folktales to everyday people outside academia. Creating picturebooks in a multilingual format is a way of reaching the general population who are not experts or activists. In addition, these will work especially well with children, who will become the native speakers of the next generation.
In summation, this research entails archiving endangered local languages and folktales as picturebooks, and using them as educational tools that can teach local languages, cultures and customs by building bridges with future generations.

Since 2015, I have been studying Ikko Tanaka’s sense of formation based on his works in the “Ikko Tanaka Archives,” which belong to the DNP Foundation for Cultural Promotion. The results of my research and analysis of his work reveal details of his “paper cutting” characteristics that characterize his technique of formation. Following my previous research, this time I focused on paper slips, which are used as material for “paper cutting”. My research method first involved narrowing down the research targets, and then measuring the size of each paper slip and its location on the surface of a work of art as well as I could. It was an opportunity to examine paper slips as an integral element of his works, as well as an opportunity to process their surface layout.
Stemming from my research, this time around I was able to conclude that the size of each paper slip and its location on the surface of each work of art are set precisely at 5mm in many of his works. The results evidence the possibility that Tanaka's original surface layouts were a combination of the geometric method of modern design and the free and open-minded form of freehand curves.