Author: Sugoroku. Kawabata Ryushi.
Title: [Shonen Undo Sugoroku].
Description: Tokyo, 1916 (Taisho 5). Colour printed broadside 54x79cm. Some separations along folds with some proper repairs. An ok copy. ¶ The New Year gift from the magazine Nihon Shonen - Japanese Boy. A splendid vision of the life of the active, enthusiastic Japanese boy: success and fame. Compare this with contemporary sugoroku for girls. Kawabata's career took a curious turn during a 1913 stay in America to study western painting. Apparently he was so impressed with the Japanese art he saw in Boston he switched to being a Nihonga painter. Still, he remained being an illustrator for magazines for quite some time. As did most of the early to mid 20th century artists now revered.

Keywords: paper games pastimes illustration cartoons manga sugoroku c20th Japan modernism graphic art Asia progress sport meiji