Graphic designer Ikko Tanaka (1930–2002) is internationally renowned for his extensive poster art. With his playful fusion of tradition and modernity, he was a defining figure in the development of visual culture in postwar Japan. His oeuvre of approximately 5,000 works extends far beyond posters, encompassing not only food packaging but also company logos, corporate identity concepts, book design, exhibitions, architectural graphics, and collaborations with fashion designers such as Issey Miyake and Hanae Mori. From the 1950s onward, his designs garnered numerous awards.
Born in Nara, Tanaka studied at the University of Fine Arts in Kyoto and worked from 1950 to 1952 as a textile designer at the Kanegafuchi spinning mill (now Kanebo) in Kyoto, and from 1952 to 1958 as a graphic designer at the Sankei Shimbun newspaper in Osaka. In 1960, he co-founded the Nippon Design Center. In 1963, Tanaka established his own studio. From the 1970s onward, he established himself as a leading figure in the world of artistic advertising. His clients included IBM Japan, Toto, the printing company Dainippon and Morisawa, and the Seibu Saizon Group. As artistic director of MUJI, he developed the brand identity of the no-name department store. To this day, Tanaka is considered one of the most influential Japanese graphic designers.
The Nihon Buyō poster —one of his best-known works—was designed for a traditional Japanese dance performance at the UCLA Asian-Performing Arts Institute in 1981. The aim was to introduce the Japanese art of dance, Nihon Buyō, to a broad, international audience. The poster depicts an abstract woman's face, composed of geometric shapes in vibrant colors. The frontal view is reminiscent of the so-called "Yakusha-e," Japanese woodblock prints from the Edo period depicting Kabuki actors. However, Tanaka composes the Japanese woman solely from squares, triangles, and circles of varying colors and sizes. Despite this reduction, the figure is clearly recognizable as Japanese due to her kimono, traditional hairstyle, and makeup. "Tanaka considers this poster his best work ever because the geometric composition is a visual expression of what he calls 'the Japanese way of life'" (quoted in Hiesinger 1995: 134).
The work was added to the collection of MoMA, New York, in 1981.
The creative and colorful poster for Japan's leading typography developers, Morisawa Photosetting Co., was created
in collaboration with Kazuko Koike, Creative Director, Professor Emeritus at Musashino University and member of the Board of Directors of MUJI since its inception.
The seemingly random arrangement of characters has a system: During the design process, Tanaka spreads numerous kanji snippets on the table and envisions them arranged in eight columns and ten rows, beginning with the character for one and ending with the character for ten. However, the characters in between should be arranged meaningfully, and Koike suggests playing with the English translation, "Shiritori." "Shiritori" is a Japanese word chain game in which players must begin a word with the same syllable as the previous word ended with. In the English version, one only needs the letter, thus progressing from "one" to "ear" to "rice," and so on.
A beautiful and subtle element in this design is the seemingly random connection of East and West with the splash of orange color.
With this background knowledge, it's even more enjoyable to look at the already impressive poster.
The work was added to the collection of MoMA, New York, in 1990.
Literature:
Pollock, Naomi: Japanese Design since 1945. Cologne: DuMont Buchverlag, 2020.
Hiesinger, Kathryn B. and Fischer, Felice: Japanese Design since 1950. Tübingen/Berlin: Ernst Wasmuth Verlag, 1995.
21_21 DESIGN SIGHT, 小池一子: 田中一光とデザインの前後左右. Ikko Tanaka and Future/Past/East/West of Design. Tokyo, 2012.
