The Nippon Exlibris Association Newsletter   No. 180 (January, 2024)

contents

●　News from the NEA..................................................... ..................................................1
・ Bumpodo’s Second Mini-print Contest. The theme : The Poetical World of NAKAHARA Chuya. Participants are expected to send only one print to Bumpodo in Jimbocho, Tokyo by January 31,2024.
●　News from members.......................................................................................................1
・ A Voice from our Member (OHNO Takashi): “The prints exhibited in art museums are generally of large size, but I would say that we are encouraged and pleased by smaller prints around us. ”
・ ‘My Recent Exlibris’ by MORINO Yuko.
p.2 and p.3
・ Indonesian Folk-Arts Collected by KANAMORI Yoshio (1922-2016)　KANAMORI is a well-known bookplate artist in Japan. He went to Sulawesi (or Celebes) island with his wife Yoshiko to collect folk-arts of Indonesian people. They visited the place for 30 years and sent the folk-arts to their house in Japan. In 2023 the huge collection was donated to the National Museum of Ethnology in Suita-shi, Osaka. Photos: KANAMORI Yoshio at the entrance of his house. Part of his collection. A house in the Sulawesi village.
p.4. (continued from page 1)
・ ‘My Recent Exlibris’ by ENJOJI Yasuko, titled ‘Kyoto Hina-doll’ .
・ The museum of Kansei Gakuin University will hold an extensive exhibition of exlibris in 2025.
<Obituary>
・ HIRATSUKA Akio, May 5, 2023 at 82 of age.
・ HARA Yoshiaki (b.1948) , May 2023.



The Nippon Exlibris Association Newsletter   No. 179 (July, 2023)

contents

●　News from the NEA.............................. ............................................................................1
・ The Japanese exlibris on 239 mats in the office of the Nippon Exlibris Association were cased in 12 corrugated cartons, and donated to Kumenancho municipal library on January 19, 2023. Kumenancho library is located in Shimo Taro’s native town in Okayama prefecture.
・ A letter of thanks from Kumenancho library. The librarians were fascinated with the beautiful exlibris,. They say that an exhibition of the exlibris will be held in 2024.
<Obituary>
・ Dr. George Sekine, the 8th President of the NEA died of cerebral hemorrhage on March 12, 2023, aged 94.
p.2 and p.3
・ Exlibris by four young Ukrainian artists introduced by Masahito Sakamoto: Marina Kupkina, Anastasia Melnikova, Miroslave (Mira) Kopcha, and Anna Voitiuk.
●　News from members.......................................................................................................4
・ ‘My Recent Exlibris’ by Katsuhiko Masuyama, titled ‘sphinx’ with a Latin motto: dives per se.
・ The colour woodcuts are from the 2023 Exlibris Calendars published by Ichiro Nambu in Osaka.
・ An interesting exlibris, A Mouse with a Pet Cat upon his knee from p.12, SELC EXPRESS, Nr.121/August 2022.

・ The membership fee of the NEA is \1,500yen a year in 2024. Members will have one newsletter.



The Nippon Exlibris Association Newsletter   No. 178 (January, 2023)

contents

●　News from the NEA.............................. ............................................................................1
・ The Whole 228 Exlibris by Kunimitsu Matsubara 1982-2022 is delivered to all members with this Newsletter.
・ The NEA will donate her 239 mats of Japanese exlibris to the Kumenancho Public Library by March 2023. The library is located in the town where Shimo Taro was born.
・ We invite all members, both artists and collectors, to write an article of 200 words or less entitled “My One New Exlibris”.
・ We expect to hear from Japanese members who are interested in exchanging exlibris with international collectors.
●　News from members.......................................................................................................1
・ ［picture from a member］”I would like to withdraw from NEA due to the age 90. This is my last bookplate”: “No visitors, I open a book in silence.”
・ Bookplate Exhibition at Sapporo, Hokkaido. The picture is a woodcut by Michie Osanai.

p.2 and p.3
・ Exlibris by three young Ukrainian artists introduced by Masahito Sakamoto: Marie Plyatsko, Yulia Protsyshun, and Myhailo Drimaylo

p.4.
・ In Memory of Yuan-shih Pan and his hippo exlibris which was created for the Vologda FISAE in 2016.
・ The year 2023 woodcut exlibris calendar printed and published by Akira Funamizu.



The Nippon Exlibris Association Newsletter   No. 177 (July, 2022)

contents

●　News from the NEA.............................. ............................................................................1
・ The membership fee of the 2023 year will be the same,¥3,000yen to all members. The 228 Exlibris by Kunimitsu Matsubara 1982-2022 will be delivered to all members.
・ [On-going Exhibition] The photo (left) shows the bookplate exhibition at Kawakami Sumio Museum, in 2022.
・ [Donation] \30,000 yen was donated to NEA by Mrs. Chieko Matsubishi, Nov. 2021.
・ [Exhibitions] 1 The photo (right) shows the Mini-Print Contest Exhibition at Galerie Cafe in Bunbodo, Jinbocho, Kanda.
●　Bookplate Artist (91)Isao Watanabe (portrait). All bookplates on p.3 are his wood-cut prints.　　　...........................2-3

(continued from page 1)
・ 2 The exhibition of Exlibris and Woodblock Prints from Ukraine and Eastern Europe　　　...........................................4
・ 3 The photo shows Exlibris Universe 2022 Exhibition at Maison de Neko in Kyobashi, Tokyo, Apr. 28--May2, 2022.
・ 4 The photo: Koeda Shoichi Collection Exhibition at two places in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture: Bansui Art Gallery (March 22--27,2022) and Kaseino-Niwa Bookshop (April 14--May 5, 2022)
・ [Publications] Hiratsuka, Akio Exlibris 1985-2019, 18 pages published by Akio Hiratsuka and Yasuhiko Aoki, Oct. 2021.
TOKI-Woodblock Prints of Inoue Katsue, published by Yuniko-sha, Oct. 20, 2021
・ [Overseas News] A scene of the 2021 German Exlibris Society meeting, from Mitteilungen 2021-2
・ [Obituary]
        David Bekker, March 4, 2022 at the age of 82
        Nobuyuki Yamamoto, March 11,2022 aged 90


Overseas members who wish to join the Nippon Exlibris Association are required to pay ¥3,000 yen a year. Please write for more details to the office whose address is found at the head of the front page of the newsletter.


The Nippon Exlibris Association Newsletter   No. 175 (July, 2021)

contents

●　News from the NEA................................................................... ............................1
・ The membership fee of the 2022 year will be ¥3,000yen to all members.
・ How was our exlibris collection built?
The Nippon Exlibris Association holds 214 frames (some of which are on mats unframed) of selected Japanese exlibris (photo on p.1). The total number of exlibris would be around 5,000. Most of them were collected for the FISAE congress held at Sapporo in 1992. They have been lent out to various exhibitions insured against damage. The Kai-shi prefectural library in Yamanashi-ken held extensive bookplate exhibitions almost yearly, 2009-2020 until the corvid-19. The NEA are looking for a museum or an organization that could afford to keep our exlibris collection.

●　Bookplate Artist (89) : Ichiro Nambu (b. Osaka, 1946)　　　................................................2-3
The exlibris shown here are all X1, wood-cut in colour.


●　News from members.......................................................................................................4
・Katsunori Hamanishi’s 40 exlibris in colour mezzotint were exhibited at Shunyokai exhibition in Tokyo, April, 2021
・Overseas Bookplate Societies Publication: Austria, Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France and Belgium

Overseas members who wish to join the Nippon Exlibris Association are required to pay ¥3,000 yen a year. Please write for more details to the office whose address is found at the head of the front page of the newsletter.


The Nippon Exlibris Association Newsletter   No. 174 (January, 2021)

contents

●　News from the NEA................................................................... ............................1
・ The average number of the monthly visitors to NEA home page is 65 per day, in September 2020, a little less than the usual. Our home page [The Nippon Exlibris Association] is helpful for visitors to get fresh information of bookplate competitions and exhibitions.

●　New Books　　　.......................................................................................1 (right column)
・Two New Publications by Soichi Bando.
(1) MEMENTO MORI holds 10 etchings by the artist. Limited to 12 copies. ¥150,000 yen 3 etchings are bookplates.
(2) HOMAGE TO E. A. POE holds Bando's 7 etchings of E. A. Poe's female characters. Limited to 12 copies. ¥120,000yen

●　Bookplate Artist (88) : Naoto SUMINO　　　.......................................................2-3

●　Exhibitions　 ...........................................................................................................4
・The reproduction in the left column shows a large exlibris (155x90mm) by Aki Miyajima.
・(right column)The elephant illustration is the DM card of “Let’s Enjoy Books and Art”, the 50th anniversary exhibition by Shimotsuke Aisho-kai (presided by George Sekine) at Utsunomiya, Tochigi-ken in Oct. 2020.

● Exlibris Surfing & Obituary........................................................................................4
・Obituary:
        Hisao Someya, April 23,2020, at the age of 84
        Noboru Yamataka, August 30, 2020 aged 94
        Tazuo Matsubishi, November 1, 2020, aged 90
        Shoichi Koeda, November 4, 2020, aged 84


Overseas members who wish to join the Nippon Exlibris Association are required to pay ¥3,000 yen a year. Please write for more details to the office whose address is found at the head of the front page of the newsletter.

The Nippon Exlibris Association Newsletter   No. 173 (July, 2020)

contents

●　News from the NEA................................................................... ............................1
・Our exlibris calendar has ceased with this issue, No. 173 (July,2020), closing the long history which started in 1943. The overseas membership fee will be ¥4,000 yen a year in 2021. The members will receive 2 newsletters and 2 memos by sea mail in 2021. They will also receive a supplement to the Illustrated Catalogue of the Nippon Exlibris Calendar 1943-2014. The supplement catalogue covers all 6 years’ exlibris calendars 2015-2020.

・The exlibris on p.1 is Emil Orlik’s work in 1906. The technique is ‘Klischee’ according to Die Exlibris des Emil Orlik by Heinrich R. Scheffer. Klischee, ‘zinc etching’ in English, is no longer in use. Hoping to know the method I tried to visit the Printing-Museum in Tokyo, but it was closed due to the corona virus.

●　Bookplate Artist (87) : Hiroshi MAEKAWA　　　.......................................................2-3
All 8 exlibris on p. 3 are waiting for ‘owners’. They have no names at present. All of them are etching. The cost of each plate (70 x 70mm) is ¥1,400yen. The owner needs to order 30 sheets or more.

●　Kana OHNO’s hand-coloured exlibris (C3)..................................................................4-5
She has produced 120 etching exlibris. The mini-book on p.2 is hand-made by Shiori TANAKA, which has 76 colour reproductions of Kana’s exlibris.

● Calendar Artists: ..............................................................................................6-7
    July: A Girl with a Book by Hideko MATSUBARA
    Aug.: Echo: Communication between Heaven and Earth by Kana OHNO.
    Sept.: Daffodil by Yoshiaki HARA
    Oct.: A Portrait of Sheherazade by Masahiro KURITA
    Nov: Festival in a Snow Hut in Northern Area by Takumi ITOW
    Dec.: Night skyscape by Kunimitsu MATSUBARA

● Exlibris Surfing & Obituary..............................................................................8


The Nippon Exlibris Association Newsletter   No. 171 (Jul. 2019)

Published by the Nippon Exlibris Association
Ryusho Bldg. 3rd fl., 1-15-11  Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0043 Japan
e-mail   exlibris@oregano.ocn.ne.jp

contents

News from the NEA................................................................... ............................1
   (1) The 18th NEA National Assembly in Tokyo this October 27.
   (2) Four Exlibris Exhibitions.
   (3) New members.

Bookplate Artist (85) : Maya OIKE. ......................................................................2-3
The Baren no Kai, Group of Woodcut Artists in Osaka..... Ichiro MANBU ..........4-5
Calendar of the Latter Half of 2019 (July to December). .......................................6-7
The Details of the 18th National Assembly at Meikei Kaikan in Tokyo. .................8

News from the NEA.............................................Ichigoro UCHIDA ........................1
   (1) The 18th NEA National Assembly will be held in Tokyo on Oct. 27, 2019.
   (2) Our Exlibris Calendar will come to end with December 2020.
   (3) The photo shows the 6th Exlibris Exchange at the NEA office in Oct. 2018.
   (4) Donations from Tone MORIMOTO (¥100,000) and Kayoko TAKADA (¥50,000)
Bookplate Artist (84) : Yuko MORINO ....................................................................2-3
Report of the 37th Praha FISAE congress 2018………Katsunori HAMANISHI........4
Bookplates for Sale to Members ..................................................................................5
Calendar Artists [Jan., Feb., March, Apr., May, and June].......................................6-7
Exlibris Surfing.............................................................................................................8
   (1) Shonosuke EZOE shows two ‘breezes’ by H. NAIDENOV
   (2) In Memory of Artur Mario Mota Miranda (l928-2018) by Ichigoro UCHIDA

Overseas members who wish to have both the exlibris calendar and this newsletter are required to pay ¥8,000 a year. Please write for more details to the office whose address is as follows:

Ryusho Bldg. 3rd fl., 1-15-11  Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0043 Japan
e-mail   exlibris@oregano.ocn.ne.jp



Nippon Exlibris Association Newsletter  No. 166 (Jan. 2016)

Published by the Nippon Exlibris Association
Ryusho Bldg. 3rd fl., 1-15-11  Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0043 Japan
e-mail   exlibris@oregano.ocn.ne.jp

contents

Homage to Mr.Rokusuke Ei, EverlastingTraveller.............Yoshinari SUEHIRO........1
Bookplate Artist (79): Osamu SAITO......................................................................................2-3
My Japanese Exlibris Collection.........................................................Bengt JANSON.........4
In Memory of Fumio TSUCHIYA...........................................................Shigeru HARA..........5
Newly Opened Gallery of Bookplates in Kamakura....................Ichigoro UCHIDA.....6
Two-Day Bookplate Exhibition by the NEA...................................UCHIDA & AOKI.......7
My Exlibris Collection (1): Motohisa KANEKO....................................................................8-9
Overseas Exlibris Artist (43):Johen KUBLIK.............................Yasuhiko AOKI.....10-11
The Vologda FISAE Congress, a Report...................................Mikio KOUYAMA....12-13
Calendar Artists [Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., May, & June.].............................................14-15
Exlibris surfing, the NEA supporters wanted...........................................................................16

p.1  Homage to Mr. R.EI, everlasting traveller.........Y. SUEHIRO.....1
Rokusuke EI (1933-2016) was a versatile Japanese talent of mass media. "Ue o Muite Aruko", known internationally as "Sukiyaki" is one of the songs of his words.  Yoshinari SUEHIRO, artist of S2 technique, has produced 13 bookplates for Mr. Ei, who always appreciated them. Mr. Ei was a very good letter writer. He wrote in one of the letters to Suehiro, "I am worried about the current publishing business in hard times, yet I know that the world of hobbies will die hard.  I send books to remote islands and bookplates as well!"  The illustration on p. 1 is Suehiro's bookplate dedicated to the late Mr.Ei.

Pp. 2-3  Bookplate Artist (79): SAITO, Osamu  [portrait]
 Born in  Shimane Prefecture in 1946. His interest in art and aethetics was marked by a visit in 1973 to the Mayan ruins in Mexico.  Four years later, he started to study wood-engraving on his own.  His first bookplate was produced by suggestion of the late Mr. Keisuke TAKAHASHI in 1985, when he visited Takahashi with the New Year Cards which Saito printed to the order from Takahashi.  He has so far created about 100 bookplates, which were donated to the museum of the Kwanseigakuin University through the good offices of Mr. Ichiro NAMBU.  Osamu SAITO was given the Albin Brunovsky Certificate at the Istanbul FISAE congress. The illustrations on p. 3 are all his exlibris by wood engraving. His postal address :604 Sone-kiyonaga, Kyotamba-cho, Funai-gun, Kyoto-fu, Japan. Postal code 622-0232

p.4. My Japanese Exlibris Collection...........Bengt JANSON
 From the beginning I learned and worked as a typographer and after that I spent some years in an advertising agency. My own business was specialised in high quality typography and with a very high level of service. I ran that business for about 15 years.  But in the beginning of the 90s, the business changed.  It was computerized and everyone started to do their own typography.  It was the time to let a new computer generation take over. Today I am 80 years old but am still interested in hobbies such as gardening, exlibris and music.  (I play the trumpet.) I have admired Japanese exlibris. They are so beautiful and ighly refined handcraft.  But obviously, it was not easy to start collecting Japanese exlibris in Sweden.  There were and still are problems of the language, and you have no one to ask. However, at a book auction, I obtained a little book from "Nippon Zoshohyo Kyokai" given to the Exlibris Organization in Sweden.
( fig.1 ).  In the book I found a very nice owl exlibris by Shiko MUNAKATA. From that moment I wanted to become a collector in Japanese exlibris, at least I tried to be one. It was around 1987-88. In those days I could easily buy small collections of Japanese bookplates from other European collectors. Mr. Cliff Parfit helped me a lot, and I became a member of the NEA.  Fig. 2 shows part of my Japanese bookplate collection which consists of 26 cases including a registry and 1700 exlibris by 700 artists and 19 boxes containing 40 books. The total number of exlibris would be 3,600. My wife and I have had the privilege to visit Japan three times. Time flies,but we would very much like to come back and visit Japan again.

p. 5 In Memory of Fumio TSUCHIYA....................Shigeru HARA
Fumio TSUCHIYA, born in Sapporo City in 1922, died on May 9th 2016 at 93. He was a dermatologist, and was vice-president of the Sapporo FISAE ongress in 1992. Mr Tsuchiya invited Mr KATSURA, the then Mayor of Sapporo, to the opening ceremony of the congress. The mayor's bookplate, reproduced on p. 5, was a woodcut by Yasushi OHMOTO, the president of the Sapporo FISAE congress.  Fumio Tsuchiya was the author of Shohyo o Tanoshimu, which means 'Enjoying Bookplates,' published in July, 1992.

p.6 Newly Opened Bookplate Gallery in Kamakura.....I. UCHIDA
  Mr. Daisuke KANAMORI started Gallery Aokishi (Blue Knight), dealing in bookplates and antique artistic prints at Kita-Kamakura in September 2016. The gallery is located near such well-known temples as Enkakuji or Meigetsuin.  The photo on p. 6 shows a corner of the gallery with Mr. Kanamori (right).  It is about ten minutes on foot from Kitakamakura railway station. The e-mail and phone number of the gallery is on p.6.

p.7  Two-Day Bookplate Exhibition by the NEA.......UCHIDA & AOKI
The exhibit of 120 Japanese exlibris used in the NEA calendars from 2007 to 2016 was displayed at Tokyo Antiquarian Book Dealer Hall for two days, 21 and 22 October, 2016, when book fairs were held there.  There were also displayed in glass cases  rare exlibris books and the original designs or plates of their exlibris.

p. 8 My Exlibris Collection (1): Med.Dr.Motohisa KANEKO [portrait] lives in Fukushima Prefecture
.He has three hobbies: (1) Reading, (2) Collecting modern Japanese prints, (3) Collecting exlibris and making some of them into book forms by himself.  He shows 11 exlibris with his name on pp. 8-9. The first two have a portrait of Soseki NATSUME (1867-1916), a major figure in modern Japanese literature.  The others reveal his interest in literature and four seasons in Japan. You'll find the works by Shigeki TOMURA, and Katsunori HAMANISHI.

Pp. 10-11. Overseas Exlibris Artist (43):Johen KUBLIK [portrait] was born in Bottrop, Germany on 12 Feb., 1962. He graduated from Polytechnic for Graphic Design, and his techniques are mezzoint, aquatint and multicolour printing. Major motifs are nude, erotic and humoristic animals.  He has so far produced 75 exlibris. Major awards include 1st Prize at exlibris competition of German Exlibris Society in 2009, and 1st Prize at exlibris competition of ZiAn-Gallery, Beijing, China in 2012. His comment on exlibris: 'Exlibris is a sophisticated hobby which unites people of all over the world beyond national borders.  Exlibris gives me a good opportunity to step into personal themes and ideas of someone else. I would be happy to know that my print works would be popular internationally in the form of exlibris.'

Pp. 12-13 The Vologda FISAE Congress, a Report....Mikio KOUYAMA
 The 36th FISAE congress took place at Vologda, Russia Aug. 22-27, 2016. Vologda is an ancient town in the north of Moscow, from which it takes 8 hours and a half by the express train to Vologda. The photos on p.12 show the front cover of the guide leaflet of the congress (top), the audience at the official reception  and the presentation by I. UCHIDA of the colourful card entitled 'Hippopotamus's Journey to Vologda' printed by Yuan-shih PAN, Taiwan, who was unable to join the congress owing to his ill health.  There was also the presentation of the Japanese editions of bookplates by Yasuhiko AOKI. The photos on p. 13 show the exhibition and exchange scene (top), all 4 Japanese participants, and the catalogue of the congress.  Next FISAE congress will be held in Czeck Republic in the late summer 2018, which will be followed by the Cambridge, U.K. in the middle of August, 2020.  Prof. William E. Butler chaired his last Delegate Meeting in Vologda. We would like to thank him for his 30-year-long service as the Executive Secretary of FISAE.  His position is taken over by Olli Ylonen of Finland.

Pp. 14-15  Calendar Artists [Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr.,May, & June
Jan., 'Transparent Will wrapping the Milky Way' by Takumi ITOW (X1) for Kenichi KISHI. The words are found in an essay written by Kenji MIYAZAWA. Feb., Metropolitan streetcar at Machiya Station on the Arakawa Line in Tokyo by Masahiro KURITA(X2) for Masayuki KADOKURA. Mar., 'Creatures' by Yoshinori KURIMOTO (X1)for Motohisa KANEKO. Apr., Quiet Night by Atsushi INOUE (X1) for Nobuyuki YAMAMOTO. May, Tokyo Station Building Restored in 2012, by Naoto SUMINO for Ichigoro UCHIDA. June, A beetle, gallerucida bifasciata by Yoshiaki HARA(S1) for Kogi SHINAGAWA.

p. 16  Exlibris surfing, new members and NEA supporters invited.
# The first half of 2017 owl exlibris calendars from Akira FUNAMIZU.
# We want some paid supporters for exlibris exhibitions of the NEA, \1,000yen per hour with transportation.
# We welcome 3 members. Overseas members who wish to have both the exlibris calendar and this newsletter are required to pay \8,000 a year. Please write for more details to the office whose address is found at the head of this summary.(Summarized by Ichigoro Uchida and Cliff Parfit)

Nippon Exlibris Association Newsletter  No. 165 (July 2016)

Published by the Nippon Exlibris Association
Ryusho Bldg. 3rd fl., 1-15-11  Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0043 Japan
e-mail   exlibris@oregano.ocn.ne.jp

contents

Aesop's Fables Exlibris by Akio HIRATSUKA..................................Shigeru HARA........1
Bookplate Artist (78): QUI, Guilan .  ......................................................................................2-3
Bookplate Exhibitions at Atlier Attico..................................................Naoko WADA. .......4
Announcement of the 17th NEA National Assembly ........................................................5
Scrutinizing the 1st Vol. of S. KOZUKA's Bookplate Album.........I. UCHIDA.....6-7
The bookplate Collection of  the late Ms Kazuko MORI.......Yasuhiko AOKI......8-9
Overseas Exlibris Artist (42):Olga KELENIKOVA...................Yasuhiko AOKI.....10-11
Appreciation of Bookplates by Franz von Bayros.............Sayoko HIGUCHI....12-13
Let's Make an Exlibris! from the Asahi Newspaper on 10 April 2016.......................13
Calendar Artists [July, Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., & Dec.]............................................14-15
Exlibris surfing, new members..........................................................................................................16

p.1  Aesop's Fables Exlibris ...........................Shigeru HARA
 The relation between the artist and the collector is specific in the case of bookplates. A bookplate is usually realized by a commission to create a specific design for a customer.After the artist and the customer have exchanged a lot of communication they reach a final form of a bookplates. While exchanging letters and phonecalls, they feel a sense of intimacy grow up between them, as if they were relatives. This is the case with Akio HIRATSUKA and myself.  I have so far commissioned 5 of his Aesop's Fables bookplates: (1) The House-ferret and Aphrodite  (2) The Astromer  (3) The Hen That Laid the Golden Eggs  (4) The Grasshopper and the Ant (5) The Lion and the Wild Ass.  The reproduction on p. 1 is the third exlibris.

Pp. 2-3  Bookplate Artist (78): QUI, Guilan  [portrait] Born in Guangdong, China in 1976, she graduated from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 2010. Since 2011 she has been studying woodcut in Japan. She finished the Studio of Wood-block Printing at Tokyo University of the Arts in 2013. Her record of awards includes: Fifth Prize at the 34th Naantali FISAE Congress International Ex-Libris Competition (Finland) in 2012; The top Exlibris Prize at the 15th Exlibris and Mini-prints Competition in China in 2013; Honourable mention at the lst International Exlibris Competition, Varna, Bulgaria in 2014; and Beste Hoogdruk Prize at Sint-Niklaas Biennial International Bookplates and Small Graphics in Belgium 2015.  Her works are collected at Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts, and Tama Art University in Japan and Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in China. Her postal address : 1-5-27-205 Tsuruse-higashi, Fujimi City, Saitama-ken,  postal code 354-0042 Japan
She writes: "I have been making bookplates, tiny and delicate works of art since 2009.  I would like to make acquaintance through bookplates with international customers, and will do my best to create better bookplates." All 9 illustrations on pp. 2-3 are her bookplates in X l technique.

p. 4. The Bookplate Exhibitions at Atlier Attico......... Naoko WADA
Yukio NOGUCHI, who died recently, taught me about bookplates some 20 years ago. He was a classmate of mine at Sokei Academy of Fine Art and Design in Tokyo.  I knew nothing about bookplates then, but  somehow got interested while listening to his explanations. In 2004, I held my first exhibition of Bookplates and Book-ends in the gallery of my house.  In those days few visitors knew what bookplates were, but I continued similar exhibitions of bookplates and stationery materials until   the 12th one in November this year. One of my recent successful exlibris was  copper-engraved for a tale written for a Camembert cheese shop in Tokyo.  My solo exhibition will be held at Ito-ya stationery shop on the Ginza in October 2016, where some exlibris will also be displayed.  [The top photo on p. 4 is a corner of her gallery, and the below is Naoko's exlibris]

p. 5  The 17th National Assembly of NEA will take place at Gakushi Kaikan in Jimbocho,  Chiyodaku, Tokyo (tel. 03-3292-5936) at 14.00-19.00 Dec. 10 (Sat.) 2016.  Participation fee (dinner and souvenir book* included)  \10,000yen.  Overseas participants will be given a discount. Exhibitions of selected personal bookplates and bookplates waiting for owners will be displayed.  Bookshops will be open as usual.  * Golden Age Exlibris by Cliff Parfit (Tokyo, 1996), 119pp., text in English & Japanese.

Pp.6-7 Scrutinizing the 1st Vol. of S.KOZUKA's Bookplate Album .............Ichigoro UCHIDA
Shoji KOZUKA (1901-1942)edited and published 6 Zohyoshu (exlibris albums):lst vol. in 1993, 2nd in 1934, 3rd 1935, 4th 1936, 5th 1937. The 6th was published in a smaller format in 1939.  The first album is bound in Japanese style in white boards, 30 cm high X 23 cm wide.   It has 14 pages of grey thick paper on which 57 exlibris are pasted, from 3 to 5 exlibris on each page. The album has a supplementary leaflet, a list of details of every 57 exlibris: owner's name, dwelling place, design and artist's name. For examble the frog exlibris (Fig.1) on p. 7 is a multi-coloured woodcut for Shoji Kozuka designed by Kyosen KAWASAKI (1877-1942), carved and printed by professional artisans. Fig. 3 is a multi-coloured woodcut bookplate representing a huge penis with two women each holding high a book . This bookplate was not tipped in the album, apparently owing to the erotic design, but kept separately in an envelope.  The title of this plate is "Adoration for Books", and  it is explained  "The original picture was designed by Shoji Kozuka." Now, we need to pay attention to the term, "original picture".  It means, in this case that the bookplate was not created by a single artist, but  was a team work of a designer who drew the original picture, an engraver and a printer; the process similar to Ukiyo-e method. Among 57 bookplates Kazuo NAKATA's 4 bookplates only are described as "self-designed and self-engraved."(and of course self-printed). The frog exlibris (Fig.1 & 2) were designed by Kawasaki, a well-known painter, but its carving and printing were done by other artisans. I think that the other 53 bookplates are all by collaboration process.  Clearly the bookplates in Kozuka's album are different from the bookplates of Taro SIMO's bookplate calendars in the so-called sosaku hanga, in which one artist  performs the entire creative process, engraving and printing as well as designing.  Shimo's exlibris calendars started in 1943.  All bookplates were sosaku hangas.  However, in the same year was published Zoshohyo Sakuhin-shu (Bookplate Works) edited by Kikuo ITO, in which all the56 bookplates were made in the traditional collaboration process. We find that the two different schools co-exlisted for quite a long time in the bookplate world, even until 1953.

Pp. 8-9. The Collection of  the late Ms Kazuko MORI........Y.AOK
Ms Kazuko MORI passed away from cancer on Jan. lst, 2016, aged 75.  She was a NEA member of long standing and often attended the NEA national assemblies, Exlibris Festas and FISAE congresses where she used to serve Japanese tea in kimono.  She worked in Osaka as a  braille volunteer and was popular among us as Osaka's  aunty.  She had about 80 exlibris with her name of which 40 were donated to the NEA by her daughter.  The photo on p. 8 shows Kazuko (left) with her daughter at the Istanbul FISAE in 2010.  You will find three of her exlibris created by overseas artists on p. 9 : Elly de Koster, Robert Baramov and Yurii Smirnov. Kazuko was born in the year of the Dragon, so she often chose a dragon as the theme for her overseas exlibris.

Pp. 10-11. Overseas Exlibris Artist (42) : Olga KELEYNIKOVA [portrait] was born in Moscow, Russia on 17 May 1953.  She graduated from Moscow Poligraphical Institute. Her technique is etching, and her major motifs are animals.  She has so far produced 92 exlibris. Major awards include Honourable mention at IV Triennale Gallant and Erotic Creation in the Exlibris and Graphics, Havirov, Czech Republic in 2005 and Laureate, Exhibition of NSEL Congress, Vologda, Russia in 2011. A few words by the artist: 'Exlibris is very interesting and close to me. Every exlibris gives me a chance to know new clients with their different characters and tastes. Exlibris seems to me an illustration of humanity--, as it were. And I am also interested in the world of animals and use them in the designs of my exlibris.'

Pp. 12-13.Appreciation of Bookplates by Bayros....Sayoko HIGUCHI Ms Higuchi, proprietor of Y-Art Gallery in downtown Osaka held two exhibitions of exlibris and illustrated books of Franz von Bayros in 2016. The works of Bayros in the exhibitions are from Mr. Bungaku ITO (aged 84) who built a most conprehensive Bayros collection in Japan. Mr. Ito founded his own private art museum in Niigata in 1993 but it was closed in 2009 after the collapse of the Bubble Economy. Bayros' exlibris still enjoy steady popularity in Japan.  Ms Higuchi hopes that the exhibitions at her gallery will give opportunities for the young generation to find the charms of Bayros' delicate and refined designs. Sayoko had a strong impression that in Bayros' exlibris every woman is loved and gracefully waited on by men and that they both enjoy their rendez-vous.

p. 13. Let's Make an Exlibris!  The Asahi Newspaper 10 April 2016
A reporter from the Asahi shimbun, one of Japan's representative national daily newspapers met our president at the NEA office in March and visited our office again with his colleague on April 4, to practice making a bookplate guided by Takumi ITO.

Pp. 14-15  Calendar Artists [July, Aug., Sept., Oct.,Nov., & Dec.]July, Swallowtail butterfly (byasa alcinous)  by Katsuo KUMAKURA (X1)for Akira WACHI; Aug., Do-do and Books  by Yoshiharu MISHIO (X2)for Shiro IMAMICHI; Sept., Chigi, the ornamental members that cross above the roofing of Shinto architecture by Takumi ITO(X1)  for Yasui KAMEOKA; Oct., Reading on the tatami mat  by Toshiyuki WAKUTA(X2) for Masanori EGUCHI; Nov., Golden-coloured Hall of Chusonji temple by Motoi YANAGIDA (X1)for Takanori OGAWA; Dec., Night by Gen YAMANAKA(X1) for Takeo ARUGA. p. 16  Exlibris surfing, new members and the summer holidays Donations: (1) 8 woodcut exlibris from Masako KITAMURA, (2) A book,Woodcuts of Flowers from Takumi ITO  (3) How to Draw a Likeness from the author, Tomoko OGAWARA, professional artist of  quick portraits (4) The World of Sumio KAWAKAMI edited by Akira WACHI, from the editor. # Katsunori HAMANISHI's exlibris exhibition to be held at the Sint-Niklaas Museum, Belgium, Feb. 14--Aug. 14. 2016. # We welcome 3 members. # The NEA office will take the summer holidays, July 4 to July 11, 2016. Overseas members who wish to have both the exlibris calendar and this newsletter are required to pay \8,000 a year. Please write for more details to the office whose address is found at the head of this summary.(Summarized by Ichigoro Uchida and Cliff Parfit)

Nippon Exlibris Association Newsletter  No. 164 (Jan. 2016)

Published by the Nippon Exlibris Association
Ryusho Bldg. 3rd fl., 1-15-11  Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0043 Japan
e-mail   exlibris@oregano.ocn.ne.jp

contents

My Travels by Exlibris..................................................Shigeru KAWAMOTO........1
BookplateArtist(77): Minoru YOKOTA  .............................................................2-3
Two Exhibitions ..............................................................Yasuko YOSHIMOTO......4
In Memory of Lian Dong, ex-President of Chinese Exl Society...Akiko UCHIDA...5
Japan Printsaurus Exhibition at Tianjin, China....................Mikio KOUYAMA....6
Shigeki TOMURA, the First Prize at Malbork..........................................Editor......7
Ryoji OCHIAI's Exlibris........................................................... .N.YAMAMOTO....8-9
Overseas Exlibris Artist (41):Leonid STROGANOV...............Yasuhiko AOKI....10-11
The Catalogue of the NEA Exlibris Calendar, 1943-2014.... .......I.UCHIDA....12-13
Calendar Artists [Jan., Feb., March, Apr., May, &June]...........  ......................14-15
Exlibris surfing, new members,obituary.....................   ........................................16

p.1  Travels by Exlibris..................................Shigeru KAWAMOTO
In 1995 Gallery Gloss (my own gallery and coffee shop in Okayama pref.) displayed the circulating exhibition of Dusan Kallay's picture books. This was my first experience of his works.  Since then, I have staged 4 exhibitions of his copperplate etchings. A number of Kallay's picture books have been published in Japan. The municipal museum of Itabashi-ku, Tokyo, held an extensive exhibition of his works, and he gave a workshop with a talk at the museum in Nov. 2009. The exlibris reproduced on p. 1 was produced in 2001, on the tenth anniversary of my Gallery Gloss.  Thanks to this exlibris I have made a number of friends and customers.  Mr. Shigeki TOMURA held 4 olo shows in Gallery Gloss and I edited two of his publications: the first was a collection of picture postcards designed by him and the second  a collection of his essays. I am too busy to make travels around the world, but an exlibris, just a piece of paper, grants me happy wanderings in my mind.

Pp. 2-3 Bookplate Artist (77): Minoru YOKOTA [portrait]
[Born in Nagasaki-ken in 1942. Moved to Kochi-ken in 1946. His first solo show of oil painting and water-colours was held at Tsubaki Kindai Gallery, Shinjuku, Tokyo in 1967, which was followed by many solo exhibitions. He completed the mural  painting in the Home for the Heavily Handicapped at Kochi-ken in 1970. He then started copperplate etching and launched a private publishing house for picture books and literary anthologies. He was awarded the Bronze Prize at Leipzig International Books Exhibition for Moonlight and a Pierrot in 1976, and the Silver Prize for The King Whose Nose Grows Longer in 1982  His first exlibris picture book entitled The Circus Has Come Back was published in 1990.] He writes: 'I think I have so far created about 600 exlibris.  In January 2015  I at last completed an exlibris picture book, entitled J. H. Fabre's Memoirs of Entomology, which took me 4 years.  I am proud of my set of exlibris picture books of Don Quixote which was bought by the City of Toledo for its new library in 2005. ' (All 7 illustrations are Yokota's exlibris)

p. 4. Two Exlibris Exhibitions........................Yasuko YOSHIMOTO
The 11th Kansai Bookplate Club's Exhibition, from Oct. 10 to Oct. l5, 2015 at Tor Gallery in Kobe, welcomed 255 visitors. On show were 142 exlibris related to Kobe City created by 26 members.  Two photos on p. 4 show Tor Gallery doorway(left) and a corner of the gallery (centre).Another exlibris exhibition, entitled 'A Man Who Loved Exlibris-Kenkichi Harano's Life Style' was held at the Kwansei Gakuin University Museum from Oct. 19 to Dec. 12, 2015. Part One of the exhibition shows his exlibris collection, including a few he made for himself.  In Part Two, free graphics by Japanese representative print artists were displayed,and rare Japanese books of detective stories Harano enjoyed.

p. 5  In Memory of Liang Dong, ex-President of Chinese Exl Society by Akiko UCHIDA
In 1985, a year after Liang Dong organized the Society for Study of Bookplates, a party of 25 Japanese visited China, headed by Isao IMAIDA, Director-General of Bunka Publishing Bureau. We were welcomed in Beijing by Liang Dong and Li Hua wearing a hearing aid, and were surounded by 200 students interested in bookplates.  In August 1990 my husband and I ran into Lian Dong at a museum in Amsterdam.  He was on his European tour and told us that he would go to Monchengladbach, Germany to attend the FISAE Congress. To our surprise he appeared, exhausted and unshaven, on the third day of the congress. He told us that his bag with passport and cash had been stolen at Amsterdam railway station. I retold this incident to other Japanese and some Europeans, who kindly pre-paid Liang Dong the commission for their personal bookplates which he will make in China and send to them.  In 1992 he came to the Sapporo FISAE congress with 11 Chinese.  In 2001 Mr and Mrs Liang Dong attended the All Nippon Exlibris Festa at Kobe with Mr and Mrs Zhang Jia-rui. I commissioned Liang Dong to create a number of bookplates of Chinese ships, as he once said to me, 'I like ships as I grew up near the the mouth of a large river.

p. 6  The Printsaurus Exhibition in Tianjin, China...Mikio KOUYAMA
Headed by Takeshi KATORI, Y. Aoki and I joined the two-day tour to the private museum of print & exlibris built by Liu Shuo-hai in Tianjin in October 2015. The main event was the exhibition of the Printsaurus International Print Exchange Association of Japan on the second floor. We reached the museum after 3 hours' ride by car from Beijing Airport and attended the opening of the event.  Liu Shuo-hai, we were told, has attended several FISAE congresses.  We exchanged exlibris in a lounge with Chinese collectors whom we had met at the FISAE or in Japan. The small room held an atmosphere of excitement and we were interviewed by a newspaperman, televised, and then invited to a wonderful dinner by Liu Shuo-hai in the evening. The tour ended with a trip to The Great Wall of China the next morning.

p.7  Shigeki TOMURA, the First Prize at Malbork..............Editor
Shigeki TOMURA won the First Prize at the 25th International Biennial Exhibition of Modern Exlibris in Malbork, Poland, in 2015. The news was reported extensively in the Iwate Nippo newspaper of Aug. 7, 2015 as shown with his six exlibris on p. 7.
The Biennial Exhibition of Modern Exlibris in Malbork is the world's oldest artistic event held every two years, since 1963, presenting current works within the field of dedicated graphic miniature. Japanese artists who were awarded at the Malbork Biennial include: Keisuke SERIZAWA (medal) 1979, Koji IKUTA (medals)1990, 1992, 1994, 2011, Masao OBA (lst Prize & medal) 1998, Shigeki TOMURA (medals and Prizes) 1998, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2015 and Yukiko HAYASHI (award) 2011.

Pp. 8-9  Ryoji OCHIAI's Exlibris Selection ................N. YAMAMOTO
The late Mr. Ryoji Ochiai (died in 2014, aged 84) had a number of personal bookplates. Mrs. Ochiai was so kind as to have donated to NEA a complete set of bookplates with her husband's name, 212 in number.  Nobuyuki YAMAMOTO classified all 212 bookplates and put them in several albums.  He displayed ten of them on pp. 8-9.  The large reproduction on p. 8 is a most beautiful colour mezzotint bookplate by Ushio TAKAHASHI created in about 1985.  The artists of bookplates on p. 9 are as follows, from top to down, left to right:  K. HAMANISHI, S. KAMACHI, I. SUGIMOTO, T. TOKURIKI, H. HAGIWARA, Y. KANAMORI, N. YAMATAKA, A. HIRATSUKA, AND Y. HIEDA (cut-out picture).

Pp.10-11. Overseas Exlibris Artist (41): Leonid STROGANOV [portrait]
Mr. Stroganov was born at St. Petersburg, Russia on Nov. 24, 1979. He graduated from Art College of Roerich in 1999, and from Institute of Applied Arts in 2002.  His technique is etching, and major motifs are taken from antique Russian and European literature and culture.  He has so far produced about ten ex-libris.  Awards: lst Prize at the First Russian Ex-libris Congress in Vologda 2005; The Special Prize for Young Artists Competition in Moscow, 2008; and the Special Prize at the Fifth Russian Ex-libris Congress in Vologda 2013.  His teachers are Alexander Durandin and Oleb Yakhnin.  Words from the Aritst: ‘I like to work in the field of ex-libris.  It broadens my
mind. I like to read books to understand the themes given by my clients. It is interesting to cram many things into such a small space as an ex-libris. Ex-libris is for me a field of interesting communication with people of  different countries.  It is very important part of my creations.’

Pp. 12 -13    The 3rd Volume of the Illustrated Catalogue of the NEA Exlibris Calendar ......Ichigoro  UCHIDA
The third volume of The Illustrated Catalogue of the NEA Exlibris Calendar1943- 2014 will be published early in 2016.  The first was published in 1978 and the second in 1994.  The 3rd volume contains the whole 853 exlibris of 72 years calendars from its start in 1943 to 2014. (11 calendars were not published owing to World War II) The exlibris 1943-1993 are reproduced in black & white, but those 1994-2014 are in full colour .  They are fully indexed in Japanese and English.  A dozen pages ( in Japanese) at the end of the volume are annals of Japanese bookplate activities, including the FISAE congresses. The origin of the Nippon Exlibris Association is generally considered to be in 1943, when the exlibris calendar started. However, it was not until 1957 that Taro SHIMO adopted the title, following overseas bookplate societies.  Earlier he had called it 'Booklovers Society.'  In the years around 1957 Shimo was very busy communicating with overseas bookplate societies, and he was, as it were, forced to hang the new signboard on his former booklovers society. He declared that the members of his Booklovers Society would be automatically members of the Nippon Exlibris Association from 1957. As of 2015, the board of NEA directors acquiesced that the NEA started in 1943.

Pp. 14-15  Calendar Artists [Jan., Feb., March,Apr.,May, & June]
Jan. ,The Adventures of the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleecce (X2) by Yoshie WAKUTA for Mikio KOUYAMA; Feb., Hideko MATSUBARA chose a scene in the Nutcracker, ballet of Tchaikovsky, for Yuko KAWACHI. Technique katazome: March, A Japanese bird called 'white-eye' and cherry blossoms (kappaprinting) by Akio HIRATSUKA for Osamu HATTORI;  Apr., Fairies in a Springtime (X1) by Shin'ichi IIDA for Tomomi NOMOTO; May, Fishing  Char in the Mountain Stream (X2) by Masahiro KURITA for Katsuo MURAKAMI; June, 'While She Is Dreaming' (C3) by Yukiko HAYASHI for Hidenobu KITORA.

p. 16  Exlibris surfing, new members and obituary
# Takao SANO was awarded the second prize at the 9th International Review of Woodcutter's and Linoleum print Ex-Libris named after Pawel Steller, Katowice, Poland in 2014.
# Donation from Shonosuke EZOE of SOICHI BANDO EXLIBRIS, edited by Shonosuke EZOE & published by Lamia Press in 2014.
# We welcome 9 new members.

Overseas members who wish to have both the exlibris calendar and thisnewsletter are required to pay \ 8,000 a year. Please write for more detailsto the office whose address is found at the head of this summary.(Summarizedby Ichigoro Uchida and Cliff Parfit)# Obituary  Elly de Koster (b. 1948) passed away on July 20, 2015. Her bookplates are still highly appreciated by many Japanese. She and Klaus joined the Sapporo FISAE congress in 1992, and visited Cliff Parfit and George SEKINE. 

Nippon Exlibris Association Newsletter  No. 163 (July 2015)

Published by the Nippon Exlibris Association
Ryusho Bldg. 3rd fl., 1-15-11  Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0043　Japan

e-mail   exlibris@oregano.ocn.ne.jp

contents

Exlibris by Umetaro　Azechi...................................................Takao　SANO.........1
Bookplate Artist (76): Gen　YAMANAKA.......................................................2-3
Bookplate & Myself: Bookplate Books by a Mad Old Man...Motohisa　KANEKO....4
Bookplates & a Bookplate　Book..............................................Soichi BANDO......5
Three International Bookplate Collectors...............Katsunori　HAMANISHI...6-7
Two Ernest Satows...............................................................George SEKINE.......7
My Exlibris Collection (2)Kozo　MATSUMURA............................................8-9
Overseas Exlibris Artist (40):Petar VladimirovCHINOVSKY.....Yasuhiko　AOKI....10-11
 Bookplate Exhibitions at the Ryuo Library..................Kazuyo　SAKAMOTO..12
Geoffrey Severin. MARK SEVERIN EX LIBRIS:the noble art minute in　size.......13
Calendar Artists [July, Aug., Sept., Oct.,Nov., and　Dec.]...........................14-15
Exlibris surfing, New Members, fisae portal　revized............................................16

p.1  Exlibris by Umetaro Azechi........................Takao SANO
Mr. Azechi (1902-1999) who produced a lot of prints of lovely Japanese　mountains, mountaineers and snow grouse, is one of the best print artists in　Japan.  I have been a long fan of his prints and I treasure his beautiful　hand printed new year cards he has sent me for 25 years.　Azechi published, as far as I know, 7 books of his exlibris, and I　obtained one of them in 1966, but to my regret it can't be located in my　library now.  It might have been lost when moving houses. As for the　important tool to check Azechi's exlibris, one must mention Azechi Umetaro　Exlibris Record, edited by Mitsuki YAMAOKA and published by the Sun Park　Museum of Nankai Broadcasting Corp. in 2002.  The book has reproduced 136　exlibris in colour, and these do not comprise his total exlibris. Mr Shigeru RAN visited the artist in his later years, collected his　exlibris, and edited them into more than a dozen books. The exlibris　reproduced on p. 1 is in Mr. Ran's Azechi Umetaro's 10 Ex Libris.  This book　(limited to 50 copies) was published in l980 when the artist was not so well　as to finish the exlibris.

Pp. 2-3 Bookplate Artist (76):Gen YAMANAKA[portrait]
Born in Fukushima-ken in 1954.Graduating from the Oil Painting Course in　the Department of Painting at Tokyo University of the Arts in 1978, he then　majored in print-making at the graduate school of the same university.  His　prints were awarded prizes at various exhibitions at home and abroad,　including such as Seibu Museum 1984 (Grand Prix), Bradford International　Print Biennial Exhibition 1986, and Ljubliana Int'l Print Biennial　Exhibition 1991. His solo exhibitions were held at representative galleries　on the Ginza, e. g. Yoseido Gallery and Shirota Gallery.

His postal address: 3-2-1, Midori-cho, Tokorozawa-shi, Saitama-ken, 359-1111　Japan. ]  Gen Yamanaka is one of the most popular print artists in today's　Japan .   About wood cuts he writes: 'When I carve a line on a blackened　wood-board, the line resembles a flash of light in the dark.  Small dots　gouged out by a small chisel look like stars or snow in the night. Thus we　have a quiet scene of light and shadow.  If the black wood-board is the dark　of night, 'gouging' creates light on it, but if we clear away all the black　surface with a U-shaped gouge, we loose everything; we have no images before　us.  I think that wood-cut is an art of eliminating or erasing whereas oil　painting is adding colours and figures. I felt attracted to this difference.　At first I studied oil painting in the university, but I found it somewhat　'a borrowed thing.'  When I came across wood cut, I was soon more　interested.  Woodcuts have a long history and tradition in Japan. I like the　touch of the washi paper and water-colour.　Regarding bookplates, I have to admit that I am not versatile. So my　bookplates are close to small versions of my free woodcuts.  I also have　difficulty in carving small letters. '

p. 4.  Bookplate Books by a Mad Old Man  ...........Motohisa KANEKO
Med. Doc. Motohisa KANEKO, a psychiatrist in Fukushima, calls himself an　old man who is mad about bookplates. He tells us about how he keeps his　bookplate collection.　When he has accumulated a certain number of bookplates --personal bookplates　with an owner's name--from one particular collector, Dr. Kaneko gathers them　into a book, or an album. He completes this book-making process by himself　and becomes relaxed to look at the result, the Exlibris of Mr. So and So.　As for his own bookplates, he classifies them by artists or themes, and puts　them into book form again by himself with bossa nova as background music. He　has to ask for the help of professionals to make more than a dozen copies as　in the case of Monologues of a Mad Old Man with 8 original bookplates by　Yachiyo NAITO, published in a limited edition to 17 copies in 2012.  The　latest he has made is Four Seasons in England (frontcover reproduced on p.4), published in 2014. He used William Morris's wallpaper for the end　papers. The four seasons are represented by English romantic poems　accompanied by 6 lithograph bookplates by Yoichiro NISHIKAWA.　

p. 5  Bookplates & a Bookplate Books ............... Soichi BANDO
  I have an English book published in the late 19th century.  On the reverse　of the cover there is a refined copper-engraved bookplate by Sherborn.  The　bookplate travelled from England to Japan.  I wonder if bookplates that I　engraved would be taken to foreign countries.　  In 2014 when I was 70, Exlibris by Soichi Bando was published by Lamia　Press in Yokohama.  Mr. Shonosuke EZOE, the proprietor of the Press,  went　to a great deal of trouble in gathering all the necessary data and　bookplates, and edited a fully illustrated beautiful catalogue of all my　exlibris from 1977 up to the present.  I bow to him for his generous effort　and kindness given to an engraver who had kept　few written records of his works.　 [The top photo on p. 5 shows the cover of the descriptive catalogue of　Bando's exlibris, from which three were reproduced below. ]

Pp. 6-7. Three International Bookplate Collectors...by Katsunori　HAMANISHI
Mr. Marvin Bolotsky.  I knew his name through his gallery, 'Four Winds' Fine Art in New York State, but I didn' know he was a bookplate collectoruntil I met him at the entrance of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and was given about a dozen bookplates at the museum dining hall. I remember that a number of people gathered around our table to look at the superb exlibris displayed, and that we had a good time talking about bookplates.  Marvin also showed me the renowned sculptures on the roof-top of the museum.   The photo of the late Brian North Lee on p. 6 was taken in front of his house in 2002.  I had sent him an exlibris with his name earlier, reproduced on p.6, as a sort of gift to the great authority on bookplates. Later I went to London to attend a ceremony of Tokyo Hundred Scenes Exhibition.  Mr Lee told me he lives with a tortoise in the back yard.   When the first exhibition of my works was held at Antwerp, Belgium in October 2014, Mr. and Mrs. Waterschoot from Holland (photo p. 7) were waiting for the opening of the exhibition at 8.00 p. m. sitting on the stairs at the entrance on the first day. Jos once provided a brilliant essay, 'Less is More' for Katsunori Hamanishi Exlibris Catalogue Raisonne, 1986-2003. 

p. 7  Two Ernest Satows ....................................George SEKINE
  Sir Ernest Mason Satow, English diplomat and Japanologist (1843-1929) and his bookplates are well-known to bookish Japanese. His surname, Satow, has no relation to Sato, one of the most common Japanese  surnames. Dr Sekine found another Satow in Japan: Y. Ernest Satow (1927-1990), proprietor of Tawaraya Hotel, a renowned historic Japanese inn in Kyoto.  This Satow was born in Tokyo to a Japanese father and an American mother. He had two surnames, Yoshio Sato and Y. Ernest Satow.

Pp. 8-9 My Exlibris Collection (2)……Matsumura KOZO
The company where I was employed moved to Shibuya, where I began often visiting an art gallery and learned a lot from the proprietor about prints and print artists.  When I left Tokyo for Okayama, aged 60, I sent a new personal exlibris with my name by Hamanishi to my friends as a souvenir. In Okayama, my native place, I frequented Gallery Gloss and got acquainted with Mr. Shigeru KAWAMOTO the owner, who kindly took the trouble to display my bookplates on the net: http://gallery-gloss.com
[The artists of the 9 exlibris on pp. 8-9 include T. TAKEI, K. INOUE, K. OUCHI, MATSUBARAs, D. Bekker and HAMANISHI.  All 100 exlibris donated to NEA are kept in albums like the one on p. 9 bottom.]

Pp.10-11. Overseas Exlibris Artist (40): Petar Vladimirov CHINOVSKY
[portrait]   This artist is now 27 years old.  He has so far produced only 31 exlibris.  Yet the exquisite works are surprising and attracting the attention of the world collectors. (Yasuhiko AOKI)
Mr Chinovsky was born on January 19, 1988 in Sofia, Bulgaria.  He graduated from Art College for Visual Arts of Veliko Tarnovo University in 2012.  His technique is alumnium plate lithography or algraphy. He says there is no major motif for his works.  He works on commissions, so the motifs are given by the clients.  His awards include lst Prize for Exlibris at the German Exlibris Society (DEG) meeting Wurzbach, Germany, 2013, and Young Artist Prize in the First International Exlibris competition, Varna, Bulgaria 2014, etc.  His teachers are Peter Lazarov, Hristo Naidenov, and Hristo Kerin.

p. 12  Bookplate Exhibitions at the Ryuo Library......K. SAKAMOTO.
One might think that bookplates are found everywhere in public libraries, but in reality, it is not so easy to find municipal libraries which are interested in bookplates.  The fact is that bookplates themselves are not known to the majority of librarians.  Mrs. Kazuyo SAKAMOTO is an exceptional being who likes and knows bookplates. She is a librarian of the Ryuo Library, central library among 3 Kai City libraries in Yamanashi Prefecture. The bookplate exhibitions were held in the Ryuo Library almost every year since 2009.  The latest sixth exhibition (Feb. 21-March 23, 2015) was entitled, 'Bookplates of Animals', associated with a piano recital at the entrance hall of the library.  The exhibition was televised on the NHK in Yamanashi.  The bookplates for the exhibition were lent to the library by the NEA. The photos are from left, the Ryuo Library, the exhibition hall and the poster.

p.13  Geoffrey Severin. MARK SEVERIN EX LIBRIS: the noble art minute in size (Yestoday, 2014)......................Ichigoro UCHIDA
Mark Severin's exlibris are now rare to find on exchange tables at FISAE confer- ences. But his exlibris are much sought-after in China. This book is the indispens-
able tool for the collectors of Mark Severin's exlibris.  It is available 'on demand' by clicking the following

URL  http://www.blurb.com/b/5601171-mark-severin-ex-libris

Pp. 14-15  Calendar Artists [July, Aug., Sept.,Oct.,Nov., & Dec.]
July: Siddartha Gautama sculpture in Kyoto (X1) by Motoi YANAGIDA. Aug.: Acanthus (X1) by Katsuo KUMAKURA.  Sept.; My Lady Greensleeves (Lith.) by Yoichiro NISHIKAWA. Oct.: Acorns and Owls (X1) by Takumi ITOW. Nov.: Flight(x2) by Kouki TSURITANI.     Dec.: Town of Stars (X1) by Hidemitsu TAKAGAKI.

Overseas members who wish to have both the exlibris calendar and this newsletter are required to pay \8,000 a year. Please write for more details to the office whose address is found at the head of this summary.(Summarized by Ichigoro Uchida and Cliff Parfit)

Nippon Exlibris Association Newsletter  No. 162 (Jan. 2015)

Published by the Nippon Exlibris Association
Ryusho Bldg. 3rd fl., 1-15-11  Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0043 Japan
e-mail   exlibris@oregano.ocn.ne.jp

contents

Exlibris as a -22Microcosm.......................................................Hiroya SUGIMURA......1
Bookplate Artist (75): ZHUANG, Man..................................................................2-3
Tarragona Sketch: The Day of Books and Roses...........................Akiko UCHIDA....4
Tarragona Sketch: FISAE congress at Tarragona.........................Sachiko KOEDA...5
Tarragona Sketch: The Sun Rising from the Med. Sea.....KAWAUCHI & HOSOI ...5-6
Tazuo MATSUBISHI Awarded the 7th Conrad Guesner Prize...................................6
Exlibris Books from the Lamia Press, Yokohama.....................Shonosuke EZOE .....7
My Exlibris Collection (1) : Kozo MATSUMURA..................................................8-9
Overseas Exlibris Artist (39): Ivan RUSACHEK...................Yasuhiko AOKI....10-11
Report on the 16th National Assembly of NEA...............Y. SUEHIRO, editor...12-13
Calendar Artists [Jan., Feb., March, Apr.,May, and June]...............................14-15
Exlibris surfing, New Members,Obituary.............................................................16

p.1  Exlibris as a Microcosm...............................Hiroya SUGIMURA
 Upon the outer circle of the exlibris of Dr. Karl Vogt by Alfred Cossmann (reproduced on p.1) , the following poetical line by Johann Wolfgang vonGoethe is engraved, which might read in English: "If you want to enjoy all, you have to find the whole in detail."  The words must give a view of exlibris shared by both Dr. Vogt and Cossmann.  On the plate we also read "MIKROKOSMOS".  It does not only mean a miniature but also a whole world.
The word 'microcosm' was probably chosen to explain that the exlibris was produced by a collaboration of the artist and the client.  Modern works of art have become larger, exhibited in spacious museums, but  artists create their works behind closed studios, and people view them only after they are completed.  There is no room for cooperation between artists and museum-visitors in the process of creation.  In exlibris, the two parties could be more close to each other and have better communication, which may bring more interesting results.

Pp. 2-3 Bookplate Artist (75): Zhuang Man
Zhuang Man [portrait in her studio] was born in Shanghai, China in 1972. She studied copper engraving at the Department of Graphic Design of Bunka gakuen University,Tokyo, 2002-2006.  Her recent awards and exhibitions include Guanlan International Print Biennial, Shenzhen, China (2009, 2011 and 2012), Grand Premio, 9th Acqui International Biennial of Engraving, Acqui Terme, Italy (2008), 14th Seoul Space International Print iennial, Seoul, Korea(2006), Lessedra World Art Print Annual Mini Print, Lessedra, Bulgaria (2004).  Also since 2007 more than 16 solo exhibitions and contributions to a number of group exhibitions. Her postal address:  Kowa Akishima Build. 408, Showa-machi 4-7-l7, Akishima-shi, Tokyo 196-0015.E-mail  Zhuangman821@yahoo.co.jp
 How I Came to Know Exlibris. It was 2006 that I made my first exlibris, and submitted it to a print biennale in Italy, but I then knew little about exlibris.  Two years later I submitted another, which was fortunately selected and reproduced in the catalogue.  On that occasion I received an e-mail order for an exlibris from Riccardo Brondolo, an Italian journalist who wrote a newspaper article about my prize prints. Through his letter I found that an exlibris was usually produced by order of a customer.  I learned also that many customers want artists to design exlibris with varied themes such as "Night and Day" or "Leda and Swan".  He kindly introduced me to Mr. Shoichi Koeda, who helped me to join the Nippon Exlibris Association.   In the beginning I was puzzled about how to 'collaborate' with customers, but soon found it interesting to realize my own identy in the limited space of an exlibris.  When a customer gives me an unfamiliar theme, I take it as a good opportunity to find a new phase of myself and illingly set to work as if to open a new leaf of a picture book.  I have made a lot of acquaintances through exlibris and am happy to have iscovered it.

p. 4. The Day of Books and Roses ...........................Akiko UCHIDA
 The 35th FISAE was held at Tarragona, Catalonia, in April 2014, under the fine weather at a seaside resort hotel for a week. The second day was the Day of St. Jordi (St. George) when books and roses were customarily given to each other person.  I heard that a book is the symbol of the saint and red roses represent his blood.  After visiting historic sites, we walked freely around the town with the map given by our host. The main street was full of people holding red roses while the book shops were all crowded. As for bookplate exchanges I wished to talk more with other collectors about the designs of our bookplates, about our hobbies, families, travels and jobs as displayed on each plate. It is a pity that this type of exchange seems rather outdated these days.  [The bookplate on p.4 was engraved for me by Maria Noble.] 

p. 5. FISAE congress at Tarragona .................Sachiko KOEDA
 I have so far joined the Istanbul and the Naantali FISAE congresses together with  my husband. I had only one exlibris to exchange, but it was a very large plate with many fantastic animals (reproduced on p.5).  I lik this exlibris engraved by Olga Keleynikova, who is in the photo with me on p. 5.  I gave a small gift of a Japanese cake to her at the exchange hall and was given in return a beautiful wooden comb. We were both very happy. FISAE congress gives us delightful and precious experience different from sight-seeing tours.  On our return trip, we had to stay one extra night in Paris due to a plane problem, yet I am looking forward to Vologda, Russia in 2016.

Pp. 5-6. The Sun Rising from the Med. Sea....KAWAUCHI & HOSOI
Ms Yuko KAWAUCHI and Setsuko HOSOI, both over 80 years old, are always as fresh as morning birds.  They came over to Tarragona after sight-seeing in Portugal.  They are accustomed to overseas trips and fully enjoyed the weeklong Catalan hospitalities at Hotel Palas Pineda. They say that the room was spacious and comfortable, and they exercised every morning while seeing the sun rising over the Mediterranean.  The photo on p. 6 shows from left, Mr Aoki, Mrs. van Waterschoot, Mrs. Kowauchi, and Mrs. Koeda and Mrs. Hosoi.

p.6 Mr Tazuo MATSUBISHI, our advisor, won the Silver Award of the Conrad Gesner Prize for his Illustrated Check-list of Swift's Gulliver's Travels in Japanese (Yokohoma: Shumpu-sha, 2011), which contains 465 items.

p. 7. Exlibris Books from the Lamia Press.......Shonosuke EZOE
I set up Lamia Press, a private press, when I became 60, and published two books: a book of poems with etchings by Alphonse INOUE, and a book of exlibris by Yukiko HAYASHI. I was fascinated while working in hearty cooperation with the artist, book-binder, designer and printers who all wanted to create  beautiful books.  In 2014 when I was 70, I published two books of exlibris: Exlibris by Soichi BANDO, which has an important essay by the artist, "Copper Etching &  Thoughts on Exlibris".  Mr. Bando wrote in detail about himself and his art in the essay.  It was for many years my dream to publish a catalogue raisonne of Alphonse INOUE's exlibris.  He is a meticulous person and has kept all his exlibris in hronological order in files.  Some of them are still printed in only a few specimens, waiting for the final touch by the artist.  The Catalogue Raisonne of Exlibris by Alphonse Inoue has Inoue's fresh essay unavailable elsewhere.

Pp. 8-9 My Exlibris Collection (1) : Matsumura KOZO
I became a member of the NEA in 1977 through the good offices of Gohachi Gallery, and learned little by little about exlibris from NEA members such as Mr. Hiroo YAMAGUCHI. I also joined gatherings of Jun'ichiro SEKINO, and Tokio MIYASHITA.  My personal exlibris are now more than 100 in number. Here are only 9 reproduced.  As I like mountaineering and Japanese mythology, I have a number of exlibris with these motifs.  The snake in my exlibris p. 9 tells that I was born in the Year of the Snake in the oriental zodiac.

Pp.10-11. Overseas Exlibris Artist (39): Ivan RUSACHEK.....Yasuhiko AOKI
Mr. Rusachek is a young Belarusian artist who produces large 'narrative' exlibiris. He was born on May 10, 1976 in Rovbick, Brest, Region Belarus. He graduated from the School of Graphics of the Belarusian Academy of Arts of Grodno State Univ.  His technique is etching, and he is a pupil of Prof. Mihail Savitsky. He has so far produced 120 exlibris.  His awards include: the 2nd and Medal at 21 Biennial Exlibris, Malbork Castle Museum, 2007; 2nd Award, Exlibris Competition of "Tajemnice Chchodnegre Morza", Gdansk, 2014; 3rd Award, Guangzhou International Exlibris and Mini-prints Biennial, China, 2014.  Rusachek says:  In my studio I create a theatre of words and symbols; characters and their shadows.  I call it a "Puppet Theatre."

Pp. 12-13  Report on the 16th National Assembly of NEA...Y. SUEHIRO, editor.
The 16th National Assembly of NEA was held at Gakushi Kaikan, Tokyo, Oct. 10, 2014 with 58 participants including 4 from Mainland China and 4 from Taiwan.  The Shimo Prize was awarded to Dr. Sekine for his long contributions to bookplate activities.  Isao UEDA and Tone MORIMOTO received a Certificate of Honour for their long contributions to bookplate activities as artists. They are both over 90 years old.  ITOW, Takumi his All Exlibris (1986-2013) was presented to every participant.

Pp. 14-15  Calendar Artists [Jan., Feb., March, Apr.,May, and June]
Jan.: Winter Landscape in Sapporo (X1).  The artist, Akira SOMA was born in Sapporo and grew up in Manchuria, where the winter tempature went down to 30 degrees below 0. Yashushi OHMOTO was his teacher of xylography.  The reproduced bookplate is for his wife.   Feb.; Japanese Orchid (silk screen). Yoshiaki HARA designed this bookplate from an orginal picture painted by the grandfather of Chieko TAKEDA.  March: Japanese Daffodils (X1) by Takao SANO for Setsuko HOSOI, whose initials are to be found in the design.  April: My Dear Old School House (X1) by Atsushi INOUE for Shoichi KOEDA.  In Japan all elementary schools start in April when cherry trees are in full bloom. May: A Portrait of Toshizo HIJIKATA (1835-69) of the Shinsengumi, small group that acted to keep peace in Kyoto for Tokugawa shogunate (X2) by Masahiro KURITA for Hideo KATSU.June: Mt. Tarumae in Tomakomai and Iwabukuro flower (Kappa printing) by Akio HIRATSUKA for Kazuhiko MONDEN, native of Tomakomai city.

p. 16 Exlibris surfing, New Members
# The Photo shows Kieko TSURUSAWA greeting the audience when she was awarded the Grand Prix at the 17th Private Publishing Culture Prize for her Drangon Head Bookplates Book (published in 2010) which has 11 original multi-coloured woodcut bookplates by the artist. More than half of them have names of overseas collectors.  Ms Tsurusawa no longer makes bookplates.
# A welcome to 8 new members. 
# Obituary: two members.
Overseas members who wish to have both the exlibris calendar and this newsletter are required to pay \8,000 a year. Please write for more details to the office whose address is found at the head of this summary.(Summarized by Ichigoro Uchida and Cliff Parfit)

Nippon Exlibris Association Newsletter  No. 161 (Jul.. 2014)

Published by the Nippon Exlibris Association
Ryusho Bldg. 3rd fl., 1-15-11  Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0043 Japan
e-mail exlibris@oregano.ocn.ne.jp

contents

Don't Bookplate Collectors Play the Game of Go?..........Yoichiro HOMMA    1
Bookplate Artist (74): ShigeoRISHO..............................................................................2-3
'Me &My Bookplates': Creating Bookplates at Nakashibetsu....Hiroshi HOSOMI....4
Announcement of the 16th National Assembly of NEA..............................................5
In Memory of Masayuki YOSHIMOTO...................................Yasuyuki SASAKI .......6
The Late Mr Yasushi OHMOTO & His Exlibris..........................Shigeru HARA........7
My Exlibris Collection (2) : Masakatsu KUROSAWA................................................8-9
Overseas Exlibris Artist (38): Peter AUGUSTOVIC.......Yasuhiko AOKI....10-11
What is FISAE?....................................................................................Ichigoro UCHIDA.......12
Flash News--The 35th FISAE Congress at Tarragona, Spain....YasuhikoAOKI..13
Calendar Artists [July, Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov.,  andDec.].............................14-15
Obituary, New Members, From the Office.......................................................................16

English summary

p.1  Don't Bookplate Collectors Play the Game of Go?......Y.HOMMA
The bookplate on p.1 was designed by Yoshiaki HARA by the silkscreen method in 1995.  The artist knew nothing about the Go game; he hadn't seen a Go board either.  So I taught him everything necessary to design this bookplate.  The game of Go is called a battle between a snowy heron and a crow, because the game is played by two persons, with white or black stones. I expected to find Go players among bookplate collectors when showing this bookplate at exchange halls.  However, contrary to my expectation, no one appeared saying 'I like the game of Go, too.'  Are ookplates and the game of Go  like oil and water?  They just never get along?  This is a question that has long been puzzling me.
[Mr. Homma donated his bookplate collection to  the Library of Hitotsubashi University, his Alma Mater.  Part of the collection will be open to the public in Nov. 2014.]

Pp. 2-3  Bookplate Artist (74): Shigeo RISHO
Shigeo RISHO [portrait] was born in Tateyama-shi Chiba-pref. in 1948.  He began to study copper engraving by himself in 1978, and his works have been displayed at the Japan Print Association Exhibitions since 1979.  He became a member of the Japan Print Association in 1995. Since 1983 his print works were exhibited nationally and internationally as in Norway International Biennale (Biennale Award) in 1984. His works are collected iny representative museums at home and abroad.  He was chosen as one of a 100 contemporary print artists in the Hanga Nenkan  (Yearbook) 1999.
The address: 4037-1-1-201 Nogawa, Miyamae-ku, Kawasaki-shi 216-0001 Japan.
In 'A Recurring Strange Image' on p. 2, he writes:  'At about the age of 30, a recurrent image came to my mind, in which white clouds were floating at night over the dimly lighted horizon, and a small hill coming up into sight in the dark sky. A castle-like structure was stuck onto the top of the hill, with plants growing along its walls. The plants, after trembling for a short while, turned to feathers, and the hill started floating in the night sky. I tried to remember this fantastic skyscape.  I'm still interested in the patterns on old walls, forms of clouds, plants, stones, corals, and fossils. I like to find a universe in a minute particle under the microscope.  I try to create a full universe in the small space of an exlibris, but it's a hard work.  The picture size is not relevant to the difficulty in creating a good design. It takes me long hours to complete a good exlibris, so, I hope you will be patient at my slow pace of work. '

p.4  Creating Bookplates at Nakashibetsu, Hokkaido....Hiroshi HOSOMI
When I held a solo show of my woodcuts at Sapporo 40 years ago, I met a collector of rare books, who taught me about bookplates.  He lent me a leather-bound volume of bookplates, from which I learned a little of the subject, and made some woodcut bookplates for my friends.  I was invited by Yasushi OHMOTO to join in producing the Northern Bookplates '90, a collection of 10 original bookplates by 10 artists living in northern Japan. It was a publication for the Sapporo FISAE congress in 1992.  My bookplate in the collection was Lake Mashu (reproduced on p. 4 left). On that occasion I became a member of the Nippon Exlibris Association.  But I was unable to attend the Sapporo FISAE congress, because I had to teach at the Japanese school in Beijing that year. At Beijing I luckily met  Liang Dong, who was President of the Chinese Bookplate Society.  I also met his wife, an artist, and we became good friends in art.  In 2002 I attended the Sapporo Exlibris Festa, where I met for the first time a number of artists and collectors and enjoyed the bookplate exhibitions by local artists.  In 2012 I attended the 20th Anniversary of the Sapporo FISAE congress and was happy to renew our friendship after 10 years. Nakashibetsu is an active town in the Nemuro district with a growing population .  Recently I often gave talks about bookplates at life-long educational classes in the town, and sometimes offerred workshops in making woodcut bookplates.  I was glad to hear that some of the participants had become new members of NEA.  All three reproductions on p. 4 are woodcut bookplates by Mr. Hosomi.   When I held a solo show of woodcuts at Sapporo 40 years ago, I met a collector of rare books who taught me bookplates.

p. 5  The 16th National Assembly of NEA will take place at Gakushi Kaikan in Jimbocho, Kanda, Tokyo (tel. 03-3292-5936), Oct. 18 (Sat.) from 14.00--19.00.  Participation fee (dinner and souvenir* included) \10,000yen. Overseas participants will be given a discount. Exhibitions of Selected Bookplates of the Past NEA Competitions will be held in the hall.  Bookshops will be open as usual.
* A catalogue raisonne of Takumi ITO's exlibris edited by Messrs Aoki and Haneda.

p.6   In Memory of Masayuki YOSHIMOTO.............Yasuyuki SASAKI
Mr Yoshimoto [portrait] passed away on 27 October 2013 aged 88.  His last days were peaceful : he was not hospitalized but rested at home.  Three days before he died he neglected shaving, but until the last, he tried to drink and eat.  His way of dying is my ideal.  He was always in a kimono and looked well in it.  I met him through the introduction of Mr Takashi IMAMURA in late 1990.  Two years later, I commissioned the artist to make orchid bookplates. He was interested in these orchid bookplates and continued the series until it reached 40 different kinds.  I then planned to publish a bookplate book that hadn' been realized in Japan: every page, from cover to cover, the book was to be printed by woodcuts. Yoshimoto wrote an explanatory note to the book, Koranso 40 Orchid Bookplates.  Specimen copies of the book were donated to two museums in Taiwan and to the Nippon Exlibris Association.

p. 7  The Late Mr Yasushi OHMOTO ..............Shigeru HARA
It was 1954 that a print by Ohmoto was first selected for theJapan Print Association Exhibition.  Encouraged by Koshiro ONCHI and Un'ichi HIRATSUKA, Ohmoto quit the life of a salaried employee and started with his wife whom he married two years previously to live a professional print artist.  He managed to earn his daily bread by illustrations for magazines and newspapers.  His early prints were abstract designs, but he soon became interested in the Daisetsu Mountains and the mountain flowers of Hokkaido. The publication of Twenty-One Scenes in Ezo (1972) was a great turning point in his life.  He spent 7 years to complete the 21 prints in that gorgeous album. The publisher was Taro SHIMO, who also asked Ohmoto to join the NEA calendar artists.  Ohmoto made his first exlibris for the calendar in 1964 (reproduced on p. 7 left).  His last exlibris was for N. SHINODA (p. 7 right) produced in 2007.  Mr Ohomoto was awarded Shimo Prize in 2013.

Pp. 8-9   My Exlibris Collection (2) :  Masakatsu KUROSAWA.
We reproduce here only 5 of his many exlibris by 4 Japanese artists.
1.  Alphonse INOUE's 'Don't Come Near, Death! '.  Kurosawa sees in this design man's fate in the ferocity of earthquakes at Kobe in January 1995.
2.  Kurosawa chose two exlibris by Katsunori HAMANISHI, a stone lantern, and migratory birds over the Mt. Fuji.  The stone lantern is an offering to gods and Buddhist divinities. Now it is used both to light and to decorate gardens.
3.  Yachiyo NAITO.  Kurosawa writes, 'I asked her to engrave an exlibris of showing a bridge over the Sumida River.  She  chose Kiyosu Bridge for me, and said that difficult parts on the copper plate are printed most beautifully on paper.'
4.  Akio HIRATSUKA    The exlibris of a girl in a kimono was created by Akio Hiratsuka by kappa printing method.  He used 53 different plates and 17 colours for the plate.  The girl is Hanako, a beautiful dancer, in Kyo-ganoko musume Dojoji--a masterpiece of kabuki dance.  There she performs a series of brilliant dances.

Pp.10-11 Overseas Exlibris Artist (38): Peter Augustovic............Y. AOKI
Mr Y. Homma has an exlibris with his name by this artist , and I have recently commissioned one for myself.  Peter Augustovic was born in Trnava, Slovakia on Aug. 2, 1959.  He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, Slovakia.  His teachers were Albin Brunovsky and Gabriel Strba. The colouring in his exlibris is superb. He won the 2nd prize at the International "Comenius" Exlibris Competition in Prague 1991.  The whole set of "Comenius" exlibris came to Japan and was exhibited at the Sapporo FISAE congress in 1992.  It is now in the library of Kyoritsu Women's College in Tokyo.

p. 12  What is FISAE? ....................................Ichigoro UCHIDA
The full title is Federation Internationale des Societes d'Amateurs d'Exlibris. Abrief history of FISAE from its beginning in 1953, and when and where congresses are to be held, and how a FISAE congress is conducted can be seen by the example of the Sapporo FISAE in 1992. A list of locations of the past FISAE congresses from Kufstein (1953) down to Tarragona (2014) is appended.

p. 13  The 35th FISAE congress took place at Hotel Palas Pineda,a fine resort hotel in Tarragona, Spain from April 22 to 27, 2014.........Yasuhiko AOKI
Most of all the participants (241 or more) stayed at the same hotel and had all three meals there.  The exchange hall was spacious and omfortable.The photos on p. 13 show from top, participants from Japan in front of the exhibition hall of the FISAE Exlibris Competition; a scene of exchange; and the front cover of the Competition Catalogue. The venue of next FISAE will be Vologda, Russia on August 22 to 27, 2016.

Pp. 14-15 Calendar Artists [July to December]
July: 'The flying island of Laputa' in Gulliver's Travels by Kimiko MISAWA (X2) for Tazuo MATSUBISHI; Aug.: A Bridge made of a Tree Root by Takumi ITO (X1) for H. NISHINO; Sept.: A Piggy Reading by Shin'ichi IIDA (X1) for Masumizu Memorial Library; Oct.:Dream Fantasy by Kouki TSURITANI (X2) for Yasuhiko AOKI ; Nov.: Gakko bodhisattva, lunar Buddhist divinity,whose role is to watch over living beings during the night, by Bakuro MORI (X1, col) for Nobuyuki YAMAMOTO; Dec.: Unicorn from Shan Hai Jing, the oldest Chinese topography by Mitsuru NAGASHIMA (X2) for M. K[ouyama]. 

p. 16  From the Office, New Members, and Call for Exlibris News
 # In Memoriam Yoshiharu OCHIAI who died on Jan. 5, 2014, aged 84.
 # Donation of books and documents from Koichiro KOZUKA
 # We welcome 5 new members.
 # Would you like to join our exlibris calendar as the owner of a plate?
Overseas members who wish to have both the exlibris calendar and this newsletter are required to pay \8,000 a year. Please write for more details to the office whose address is found at the head of this summary.(Summarized by Ichigoro Uchida and Cliff Parfit)

Nippon Exlibris Association Newsletter  No. 160 (Jan. 2014)

Published by the Nippon Exlibris Association
Ryusho Bldg. 3rd fl., 1-15-11  Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0043 Japan
e-mail exlibris@oregano.ocn.ne.jp

contents

A Bookish Artist's Playful Design..............................Masahito SAKAMOTO...1
Bookplate Artist (73): Aki MIYAJIMA....................................................................2-3
'Bookplates & I': Twenty Years Past & Future........Kazuhiko MONDEN...4
Exlibris for Lawyers by Hans-Joachim KRETZ................Ichigoro Uchida...5
In Memory of Sen'ichiro SAITO...............................................George SEKINE...6
Hiroo YAMAGUCHI, editor, author & publisher..............Ichigoro UCHIDA..7
My Exlibris Collection (1) : Masakatsu KUROSAWA.....................................8-9
Overseas Exlibris Artist (37): Seng-hsun HUANG.....asuhiko AOKI...10-11
Report on the 3rd NEA Exlibris Competition at Nagoya.......Editor...12-13
Calendar Artists [Jan., Feb., March, Apr., May and June]....................14-15
Contents, From the Office, New Members, Call for Exlibris News .........16

English summary

p.l A Bookish Artist's Playful Design............Masahito SAKAMOTO
Yukiko HAYASHI is well known by her brilliant volume, The Trembling of Psyche's Wings: Yukiko Hayashi Exlibris Catalogue Raisonne 1997-2010 (Lamia Press, 2010). Her bookplates show female nudes, flowers and imaginary animals. Her similar pen-drawings of these motifs are also beautiful. Speaking of female nudes and flowers, Franz von Bayros may come to mind. His charming and fautless erotic exlibris are in rococo style, whereas Yukiko Hayashi's works seem to be more mannered in mannerism, with grotesque and mysterious figures. However, I think that the two artists have common attitudes towards art: a literary tendency and stoicism with which they observe their own works. When I asked Yukiko for an exlibris depicting 'Lamia's Love and Sin', she sent me two sketches to choose from. I liked both and at last commissioned both.  The one reproduced on p.1 shows a maiden entwined by a huge serpent. At the first sight, I thought that the serpent was the shape 'S' of Sakamoto!

Pp. 2-3 Bookplate Artist (73): Aki MIYAJIMA
Aki MIYAJIMA [sitting in the corner of a gallery] was born in Tokyo in 1972. She studied copper etching with Seiji KAMACHI at the Doumu Studio. Her works have been selected for exhibition in Poland, Croatia, Czech, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Taiwan, Lithuania, Italy, Turkey and Belarus. Her Recent awards include the Excellent Prize at the 8th Kusamakura Art Exhibition in 2010, the Gold Prize at the 2nd NEA Exlibris Competition in 2011 and the Grand Prix at the 3rd NEA Competition in 2013. Her work is described in 'Aki Miyajima' by Shonosuke EZOE in Contemporary International Ex-Libris Artists, Vol. 17, pp.25-32 ( 2013, Portugal).
The address: 3-14-25-706, Chuo-honcho, Adachi-ku, Tokyo 121-0011 Japan. Both e-mail address and URL are on p. 2 of the Newsletter. In 'An Exlibris, a Small Mirror Reflecting Myself', Miyajima writes: 'I was fascinated by the detailed aesthetic exlibris engraved by Seiji Kamachi, and I engraved my first exlibris in 2001. It was selected in a competition in Poland and reproduced in the catalogue. The result encouraged me a lot, and I continued to submit exlibris to overseas competitions. Competitions usually give a specific 'theme' , such as 'Freedom' in the Bulgarian competition. I thought it was necessary to know the history of the Balkan Peninsula to understand the full meaning. Thus I became accustomed to studying the theme before designing each exlibris. For Lafcadio Hearn's Aoyagi exlibris (top, centre, p. 3), I visited Izumo, where I was impressed with the religious atmosphere. After this trip, I often produced works based on literature. I prefer to read books published during or before World War II. New literature doesn't appeal to me. I see a vision realized in the pitch dark, and I reflect myself upon characters and things in the literary works. Thus I imagine that all the images in my exlibris are self-portraits. The theme in hand is Kyusaku YUMENO and his elder son, Tatsumaru SUGIYAMA who changed a desert in India into a fertile area. The titles of the exlibris in the bottom row on p. 3 are, left to right, Carmilla (Le Fanu) and Lamia (Keats).

p.4 'Bookplates & I': Twenty Years Past and Future.........Kazuhiko MONDEN
I became a member of the NEA in 1989, and received in the same year my first personal bookplate realized through the management of the Gohachi Bookshop. It was a hand-coloured C3 plate created by Minoru YOKOTA (reproduced on p. 4). With this bookplate only in my hand, I entered the exchange hall at the Sapporo FISAE Congress in 1992. I was dumb-stricken in the heated atmosphere and unable to recognize who was who in the hall. At that time I didn't have any bookplate friends, but plucked up courage and asked a man at the table to make an exchange. "Who do you have?" he asked.  "Yokota Minoru," I replied. "Then, I offer this." That was all. Someone else said, "Choose one of these," and handed me a bunch of bookplates.  In my mind I said, "So this is the exchange. "A collector gave me 10 bookplates in return for only one Yokota, but another gave me a very crude plate.  I gradually became accustomed to the bookplate exchange, but found that my 20 Yokotas had all gone. 20 years have passed. I have attended 3 national assemblies and 4 exlibris festas in Japan, and am still anxious about the results of exchange at the meeting. Was he (or she) satisfied with what they had from me? Should I have exchanged and talked with more collectors? Anyway, I am always thinking how to increase bookplate friends, because it is thanks to them, that I continue to enjoy bookplates.

p.5 Exlibris for Lawyers written by Dr.Hans-Joachim KRETZ.........Ichigoro Uchida.
I had long been puzzling my small head about the meaning of the fig. 1 exlibris. A certain overseas collector told me that the 'double S' symbol in the exlibris is a section mark (§)to indicate the start of a section in a legal book or document. So, the exlibris may depict a man in the fool's dress teasing a lawyer or an accountant. During the FISAE congress at Naantali, Finland in 2012, Dr.  Hans-Joachim Kretz gave me his book, Exlibris fur Juristen. Since the book was written in German, I asked him to write a short article about 'Symbols of Legal Exlibris' in English: 'Justice is usually represented by a (young and pretty) woman holding a sword in one hand and a pair of scales in the other. Typically she wears a blindfold, covering her eyes. This means that all people are equal in front of the law. Reputation, power, wealth, nothing should matter for the justice. In some humorous scenes, you will find Justice lifting her blindfold a little as in fig. 2. Another frequent symbol is a pair of scales. In every just court of law all good and bad deeds will be judged by Justice. In fig. 3 the picture shows that a rose is heavier than a law book. The third legal sign is a 'paragraph' in German, and a 'section mark' §in English.'  Fig. 4 is from Kretz's book and the scene probably shows a man losing his way in the legal forest. All these symbols are so varied, and Hajo closes his article with the following words: 'For me, being a lawman and an exlibris collector, it is a never ending story.'

p.6 In Memory of Sen'ichiro SAITO(1925-2013)............................George SEKINE
Mr. Sen'ichiro Saito passed away on June 3, 2013 at the age of 88. He helped Hidetaro IMAMURA, president of the Nippon Exlibris Association, to accomplish the Sapporo FISAE congress in 1992, and tackled the difficult problems of the Association as a director under President Fukujiro YAGI after the death of Imamura in 1994. Saito became the 7th president of the NEA in 1996, and in the same year led  Japanese members to the Chrudim FISAE congress. He was one of the core members who started the Japan Exlibris Journal, which continued for 6 years. He was the key person who united the Japan Exlibris Journal to the NEA in 2000. In 2004 he was awarded the Shimo Prize, the NEA's top award. Mr. Saito was born on Sept. 4, 1925 in downtown Tokyo. He graduated from the Department of Literature at Nihon University and worked for a sugar manufacturing company for many years. He was a man of literary tastes, well versed in brush calligraphy, and a peerless reader of contemporary Japanese literary works. He learned cloth binding at his later years and gave us some of his fine handmade book covers. He said that longevity is favourable but that it also means we have to see friends dying off.

p. 7 Hiroo YAMAGUCHI, Editor, Author & Publisher ...................Ichigoro UCHIDA
We regret to announce the death of former Secretary Mr Hiroo YAMAGUCHI(fig.2) in 2013--who was a member of Christian faith. He was born in Fukushima-ken in 1936, graduated from Waseda University and was employed in Bunka Publishing Bureau, where he met exlibris for the first time and was fascinated with them.  Bunka Publishing Bureau took over Taro SHIMO's Aisho-kai, a book-lovers association in 1977 owing to the old age of Mr. Shimo. Bunka changed the title of the association to the Nippon Exlibris Association, but continued the same newsletter and calendar for the members.Yamaguchi edited the biannual newsletter and edited the calendar with 12 original exlibris. In those days the NEA had nearly 800 members, and the number was rapidly increasing. Yamaguchi wrote, "We cannot accept any more than 1500 members." The catalogue of the first Modern Japan's Exlibris Exhibition at Mikimoto Hall on the Ginza was published in 1978, edited, according to the imprint, by the NEA. However, I believe that it was actually edited by Yamaguchi. In the catalogue all exlibris attached to the calendars, from the beginning (i.e. 1943) up to 1978, were reproduced in black and white, which made the catalogue a handy reference tool for exlibris collectors. Yamaguchi left the editorship four years later, and retired from Bunka at the end of 1983 at 47 making use of the early retirement system. He then set up a publishing company at his own house, and started publishing exlibris books. He studied and collected exlibris. His exlibris essay won a first prize and he was invited to the Czech embassy in Tokyo. He knew Albin Brunovsky well and the artist engraved a beautiful exlibris for him (fig. 3). His best seller was (and it is still useful) Gendai Shohyo Joho Jiten [Modern Exlibris Reference Dictionary], a golden monument among books about exlibris published in Japan (fig. 1).

Pp. 8-9 My Exlibris Collection (1) : Masakatsu KUROSAWA.
Mr. Kurosawa [portrait (right) with Noboru YAMATAKA] is one of chief supporters of Sojiji Zen Buddhism temple in Tsurumi-ku Yokohama City. He writes that respected teachers and friends make our lives happy in the world, and that he always thanks exlibris artists for making his bookplates, of which Kurosawa chose 7 examples on pp.8-9. The artists are S. KAMACHI, M. TSUIHIJI, T. ITO and N. YAMATAKA.

Pp.10-11 Overseas Exlibris Artist (37): Seng-hsun HUANG..........Yasuhiko AOKI.

Pp.12-13 Report on the 3rd NEA Exlibris Competition at Nagoya.................Editor

Pp. 14-15 Calendar Artists [Jan., Feb., March, Apr., May  and June]
Jan.: Throbs of the Ginza by Hisao SOMEYA (X1) for Akiko UCHIDA; Feb.: Going to Mountains by Masahiro KURITA (X2) for Hiroshi UCHIDA; March: Dr. Sekine with Don Quixote Hat by Seng-hsun Huang (X2) for George SEKINE; April: Date Palm by Yoshiaki HARA (silk screen) for Tadasumi KIKUCHI ; May : Pierrot Golfer and Albatross by Motoi YANAGIDA (X1) for Akimasa MIYATA ; June : Frogs from Choju giga (Scrolls of Frolicking Animals- National Treasure) by Takao SANO for Koichi ISHIZAKI.

p. 16 From the Office, New Members, and Call for Exlibris News Donation of his own exlibris by Toshio SASAKI. Do It Yourself Workshop of Bookplates held at Saitama Central Library, Aug. 20-21, 2013 with 8 participants. The URL of our new Home Page :http//www8.ocn.ne.jp/~exljapan/ We welcome your news or articles about exlibris.Overseas members who wish to have both the exlibris calendar and this newsletter are required to pay \8,000 a year. Please write for more details to the office whose address is found at the head of this summary.(Summarized by Ichigoro Uchida and Cliff Parfit)

Nippon Exlibris Association Newsletter  No. 159 (July 2013)

Published by the Nippon Exlibris Association
Ryusho Bldg. 3rd fl., 1-15-11  Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0043 Japan
e-mail   exlibris@oregano.ocn.ne.jp

contents

Albrecht Durer's Bookplate for W.Pircheimer......Nicholas INGLETON.......1
Bookplate Artist (72): Yoichiro NISHIKAWA........................................................2-3
'Bookplates & I': German Wine and Sapporo.....Hans-Joachim KRETZ.....4
Exlibris Exhibitions at Okayama & Tottori..............Shin'ichi TAKAHARA.....5
In Memory of Naoto HIDA...................................................Yoshinari SUEHIRO....6
Loss of a Mimeograph Artist.:Genshichi TSUKAGOSHI.......Yoshiaki HARA......7
Overseas Exlibris Artist (35): Lembit Lohmus.....................Ichigoro UCHIDA...8-9
Overseas Exlibris Artist (36): Iva TSANKOVA...................Yasuhiko AOKI....10-11
Bookplates from Our Members ..............................................................................12-13
Calendar Artists [July, Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., and Dec.]................... ..14-15
Exlibris Surfing, New Members, Obituary..................................................................16

English summary

p.l  Albrecht Durer's Bookplate for Willibald Pirchheimer .....Nicholas Ingleton
The bookplate here illustrated is Albrecht Durer's woodcut for Willibald Pirchheimer.  You may probably have seen the bookplate reproduced as the frontispiece of Leicester Warren's A Guide to the Study of Bookplates (1880).  I am fortunate to have an unused one, given to me by Dr. Konrad Liebmann, and I 'd like to write about it for my first article to the Newsletter of the Nippon Exlibris Association.  As the great artist is well known, I would rather offer a brief biography of Willibald Pirkheimer(1470-1530).    He was the fourth generation of learned men to use and increase his family's library. The library appears to have had everything of value available in the 15th and 16th centuries.  In 1504 Pirckheimer told his friend that his library possessed all of the Greek books that had been printed in Italy up to that date, and he also had the printed editions of all of the Roman writers. The bookplate measures 118mm x 171mm.  The bottom of the plate has the inscription LIBER *BILIBALDI PIRCKHEIMER (Book of Willibald Pirckheimer);above the helmet is the further inscription SIBI ET AMICIS (for himself and his friends) and finally at the top of the plate, in Hebrew, Greek and Latin: The Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdom.  *[ B is applied to the letter W because there was no W in the Latin alphabet.]

Pp. 2-3  Bookplate Artist (72): Yoichiro NISHIKAWA
Yoichiro NISHIKAWA [portrait with a roller] was born in Saga-ken in 1959, graduated from Graduate School of Tama Art University in 1985, and gained governmental scholarship awarded by Agency for Cultural Affairs to study at domestic institutes.  His awards are many, including the second prize at the Nichido Print Grand Prix Exhibition in 1984,  Best Work Prizes at Kusamakura Art Exhibition, at Prints 21 Grand Prix Exhibition, and at River Picture Exhibition, all in 2006.  His prints are preserved in permanent collections at the Rockefeller Foundation, the Hamburg Museum, the Singapore Museum, the British Museum and the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.  His address:Furusawa 501, Asoo-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa-ken, 215-0026 Japan. About his prints, atelier and exlibris Mr. Nishikawa writes: ' I first printed a lithograph when I was a junior at university.  I was charmed by the last breathtaking moment when the picture came out.  I've been producing lithographs for 30 years.  My atelier is in an old farm house in a rural area of Kawasaki-shi. The house, on the edge of a large forest, looks a bit dilapidated but is stable enough to be crammed with lighting equipment, a litho-press, and other electronic devices.  I like listening to music in a cane chair on the veranda, as music is indispensable for me to develop new images.  Each bookplate brings a story of an encounter, so I'm thrilled to get an order from my customers. It is interesting to design a bookplate according to the order from a customer. I always look forward to new commissions.

p.4 'Bookplates & I': German Wine and Sapporo...............Dr.Hans-Joachim Kretz
I have always been a collector.  Like many other young boys I began collecting stamps and coins 60 years ago.  At the age of 25 I learnt to appreciate wine, so I began to collect bottles, labels and corks of famous wineries.  In 1964 I started to study law in Munich and then moved to
Wuzburg.  I continued my studies of law and of wine intensively.  My collection of wine literature was growing.  One day I got a small book of wine exlibris as a present.  The book had two wood cuts made by Herbert Ott who was from my native place, so I wanted to decorate my wine books with a wine exlibris.  Mr. Ott kindly invited me to his home and made my first exlibris.  In 1979 I joined the German Exlibris Society. Since 1980 I travelled to the international congresses of FISAE.  In 1992 I got married at the age of 47.  We had chosen Japan for our honeymoon.  And what acoincidence!  right there was the 24th FISAE congress.  The three illustrations on p. 4 are, from left to right, my first exlibris by Herbert Ott, an exlibris of One Germany by Volkamer and the photo shows myself in the durable T shirt of the Sapporo Congress and Mrs. Uchida in Naantali, Finland, 2012.

p.5  Exlibris Exhibitions at Okayama & Tottori..............Shin'ichi TAKAHARA
Some 30 years have passed since I came in contact with exlibris.  I wrote an article 'How I Knew Exlibris' for this Newsletter, No. 117 (Oct., 2001).  On this occasion I'd like to comment on 5 exhibitions  I have engaged in since 2004.
[1] 'An Exhibition of Mini-Prints Collection of Shin'ichi Takahara' was held in Gallery Seed in Tsuyama-shi, Okayama-ken, in Sept., 2004. This was the first show of my exlibris collection.  It took 2 months for me to choose 174 pieces and mount them in frames with necessary captions.  It was reported in 2 newspapers and also televised.
[2]  35 exlibris of birds from my collection were exhibited at the Tsuyama Art Festival in May 2005 (the year of Rooster).
[3]  My 94 exlibris in varied print techniques were mounted in 23 frames for 'The World of Exlibris' held at Munakata-Yanai Art Museum in suyama-shi, January 2010.
[4]  Mimeographed exlibris by Genshichi TSUKAGOSHI in my collection were shown at Yume Art Museum, Yonago-shi, Tottori-ken, January 2010.
[5]  In 'Exlibris Exhibition and Print Workshop' at Kumenancho Town Library, Okayama-ken, August, 2012, my 82 exlibris were shown (photo on p.5).Kumenancho is the native place of Taro SHIMO, founder of the Nippon Exlibris Association. His large Japanese house is still kept in its original state by a different local family.

p.6  In Memory of Naoto HIDA(1920-2012).............................Yoshinari SUEHIRO
Dr.Eng. Naoto Hida [portrait] passed away in November 2012.  He specialized in architectural acoustic design.  But he took part in  other activities such as study and creation of exlibris, creative seal-engraving, and study of nenga (Chinese ritual prints).  These activities resulted in the following books: Zoshohyo no Bi (The Beauty of Exlibris) published in 1986 ; Zoshohyo no Miryoku (Charm of Exlibris), 1992;  Zoshohyo Geijutsu (Art of Exlibris) 1997, and books about Tenkoku and Nenga.  Dr. Eng. Hida was my exlibris mentor, and I cannot thank him too much.  He taught me about exlibris from ABC to XYZ.  But he was a very strict teacher and did not allow me to make any mistakes concerning exlibris.  In 2005 he donated most of his huge collection of exlibris to Nagoya Univ. Museum (see our Newsletter No. 133).  He created stone seal-engravings, one of which is reproduced on p. 6  It was a commemoration exlibris for the enthronement of our present emperor in June 8, 1989.

p. 7  Loss of a Mimeograph Artist : Genshichi TSUKAGOSHI..........Yoshiaki HARA
Genshichi TSUKAGOSHI passed away on 13 June 2011.  I had talked with him over phone two months earlier.  But I hadn't seen him for a long time, since he moved to Chiba-ken.  The sad news was brought to me by his relative who came over to my place grasping an old newspaper clipping about 'The Exhibition of Genshichi Tsukagoshi's Art'. Mr. Tsukagoshi was born in Tochigi-ken, 1922.  He was taught mimeograph while he was a civilian attached to the army in 1940, and became an instructor of mimeograph for the Metropolican Vocational School in 1964.  He further studied the skill with Mr. Yasoji WAKAYAMA in 1965.  He was a very skillful artist.  Wim Zwiers was interested in his technique demonstrated on the occasion of the Utrecht FISAE congress in 1986.  By his death we lose those numerous minute lines drawn by hand as you see in two exlibris on p.7. The portrait on the left was taken during the Exlibris Tour to China in 1985.

Pp. 8-9  Overseas Exlibris Artist (35): Lembit Lohmus..............Ichigoro UCHIDA
My first exlibris by Lohmus was realized in 1990 and I'm aware that his work is highly appreciated amongst European collectors, and that one of his exlibris can be exchanged, as if it were a joker in a card game, for any desired exlibris.  So, I expected him to be quite an old artist, and that he might no longer make new exlibris.  However, he was still 65 in 2012, when my wife and I met him for the first time in Tallinn, on our way back home from the Naantali FISAE congress, thanks to the good offices of Mr. Priit VAHER.  He was working actively with a huge camera as you see in the portrait. He was born at Mustla, Estonia on September 25, 1947. From 1969-1975, he studied at Tartu Art School and Tallinn Art Univ. graduating with honours, from 1977-1988 worked as Head of the Applied Art Subsidiary of Art Museum of Estonia.  He was President of Tallinn Bookplate Club 1989-1992, is now project leader and graphic designer for the Estonian Post Office.  He has designed postage stamps for 6 countries and current Estonia coins were also designed by him.   He has engraved some large portraits, the first of which was Alfred Cossmann.  Lohmus mentions Hans Ranzoni, the Younger as his favourite exlibris artist.  I personally think that Lembit might belong to the Cossmann Schule.  He is happy to accept orders from Japan, but one would have to wait for some years as the waiting list is long.   Nine exlibris on p.9 are all by Lohmus. He has so far produced c.520 exlibris.

Pp.10-11   Overseas Exlibris Artist (36): Iva TSANKOVA............Yasuhiko AOKI.
I met the artist [portrait] at Naantali, Finland in 2012, and found her a quiet and charming young artist.  She is one of the promising artists of Bulgaria.  Iva Tsankova was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, on May 29, 1981 and graduated from the National Sofia Art Academy.  Her technique is dry-point & monotype.  Her main motif is 'the atmosphere around us'.  She has so far produced 34 exlibris.  Her teacher is Robert Baramov.  She wrote about exlibris:  The exlibris is an easy and quick way of expressing my feelings. The compact space suits me very well.  The exlibris is like a jewel to me. It is a challenge to inspire a vast quantity of atmosphere in this small jewel to express your feelings. It is really strange to see how it is possible to put so much space into such a tiny piece of paper.

Pp. 12-13.  New and Old Bookplates from Members

Pp. 14-15.  Calendar Artists [July - December]  July: Naked Girl with Jellyfish by Toshiyuki WAKUTA (X2) for Yutaka NISHIOKA. Aug.: Swallowtail Butterflies by Takao SANO (X1) for Junji HASHIMOTO.  Sept.: Dodo with a Walking-stick by Mitsuru NAGASHIMA (X2) for Shiro IMAMICHI.  Oct.: Boy Reading a Book by Shozo OKAMURA (X1) for Tatsue FUJIMAKI.  Nov.: Tarot-wheel of Fortune by Yoichiro NISHIKAWA (litho.) for Toshiko MURATA. Dec.: Mt. Takayashiro in Nagano-ken by Motoi YANAGIDA for Yonezo HIGUCHI.

P. 16.  Exlibris Surfing, New Members, Obituary
# 'Intellectual Topics of Bookplates'  A Talk will be given by Ichigoro UCHIDA at Kyoritsu Women's Univ. Tokyo, Sept. 28, 2013. An Exhibition of the bookplates collected by Kyoritsu Women's Univ. will be shown at Hinoki Gallery, Jimbocho after the lecture.
# Obituary:  Hiroo YAMAGUCHI on April 1st, 2013 aged 76.
#A welcome to 11 new members Overseas members who wish to have both the exlibris calendar and this newsletter are required to pay \8,000 a year. Please write for more details to the office whose address is found at the head of this summary.(Summarized by Ichigoro Uchida and Cliff Parfit)

Nippon Exlibris Association Newsletter  No. 158 (Jan. 2013)

Published by the Nippon Exlibris Association
Ryusho Bldg. 3rd fl., 1-15-11  Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0043 Japan
e-mail   exlibris@oregano.ocn.ne.jp

contents

Unexpected Good News...................................................................Shoichi KOEDA....1
Bookplate Artist (71): Kenji ONJOJI........................................................................2-3
The 34th FISAE Congress at Naantali, Finland...............Mikio KOYAMA.......4
Presentation on Woodcut Printing at Naantali FISAE Congress.....Takao SANO..5
Shigeki TOMURA awarded two first prizes!...............................................Editor...6
Thank You Very Much.................................................................Shigeki TOMURA......6
Announcement of the 20th Anniversary of the Sapporo FISAE Congress.............7
Tazuo MATSUBISHI's Collection: Gulliver's Travels in Exlibris(6)..........Editor......8-9
Overseas Exlibris Artist (34): Juri JAKOVENKO.......................Yasuhiko AOKI...10-11
Report on the 15th NEA National Assembly....................................................12-13
Calendar Artists [Jan., Feb., March, April, May & June]...........................14-15
Exlibris Surfing, New Members, Obituary....................................................................16

English summary

p.1  Unexpected Good News..................................Shoichi KOEDA.
My exlibris was awarded the First Prize at the International Biennial Competition for Exlibris and Small Graphics at St. Niklaas, Belgium, 2011.  'Festival' was the competition theme, which received 790 works --66% were exlibris-- by 364 artists from 48 different countries and 'Festival' was my favorite theme for exlibris.  Yuri Nozdrin also liked the concept and was glad to accept my commision. I would like you to note the simplicity  of the design, - so different from his usual style full of complicated figures.  Of
course the theme was clearly represented in the exlibris, with lots of traditional masks of folk festivals throughout the world. The artist wrote to me that the girl standing on the left side is a Japanese wearing a long nosed Tengu mask.  I have quoted Nozdrin's English explanation of this exlibris on p. 1 of the newsletter, no. 158.

Pp.2-3. Bookplate Artist (71): Kenji ONJOJI
Kenji ONJOJI [portrait in his studio] was born in Ibaragi-ken in 1946. He first studied with Masamichi SUDO and Masao YOSHIDA, and he went to France in l973 to continue with S. W. Hayter (l901-l988) at Atelier 17 (Paris). His prints were often exhibited overseas, and are preserved in permanent collections at the British Museum, Westpac Museum, Wise Collection, etc. His  awards include the Fujitsu Prize (2nd Sapporo Biennial International Modern Print Exhibition), the New Artist Prize (Kokugakai), and the
Encouragement Prize (15th Shigeru AOKI Memorial Grand Prix Exhibition).
His studio address is : 513-50, Haraichiba, Hanno-shi, Saitama-ken 357-0124 Japan.  E-mail is given on p.2 of the newsletter.

Mr. Onjoji writes about how he began making exlibris.  "When I was in late teens, I happened to see an old copper-engraving at my friend's home.  I remember trees and some words on the print, but at that time I had no concept of an exlibris. I later thought it must have been an exlibris and was anxious to engrave one for myself, but the imported tools and materials for engraving were too expensive for a young art student.  A year after I started working as a designer at a confectionary company, I chose to be an assistant to a print artist. Then, I was given a chance of going to study at Atelier 17 Studio in Paris with S. W. Hayter who was noted for his viscosity printing (multi-coloured printing on one plate).  During those days in Paris I used to enjoy browsing in a flea market and picked up some old copper
engravings. Whenever I look at them, I am  inspired by the detailed skill with which  former artisans engraved. I want to engrave a cosmos onto a small copper plate as did the artisans in former times." The 9 reproductions on p. 3 are exlibris by Onjoji.

p.4  The 34th FISAE Congress at Naantali, Finland........ Mikio KOYAMA
The 34th FISAE congress took place at Naantali, Finland, Aug. 13-18, 2012. FISAE President, Tauno Piiroinen reported that 187 persons had registered from 23 countries, and added that the number of participants should be over 200 to cover the overall cost of the congress.  From Japan 15 people joined the congress. 
In the International Ex-Libris Competition Shigeki TOMURA won the first prize.  Qiu Gui Lan and Zhuang Man the 5th prize, & Toshiyuki WAKUTA an Honorable Mention. On the Opening Ceremony stage, we had pleasant musical performances, which were followed by the prize award ceremonies:  Mr. Rong Wang (Shanghai), Mr. Pan (Taiwan), and Mr Uchida were each given a white Moonintroll doll as a souvenir.  Bookplate exchange went very smoothly in the comfortable, spacious hall, where a bookplates shop was open by host.
The exhibition of Asian woodcut exlibris were held at Raisio Library.  Each participant received from the host the Best Ex-Libris in the World 2010-2012 and a thick, well-edited Participants Directory with photos in colour. Pearls of Asia and Wakatsuki, Kohei Exlibris (1994-2011) were also given to all participants.

p.5  The Presentation on Woodcut Printing Method at Naantali........Takao SANO
Mr Pan of Taiwan always wants to throw light on multicoloured woodcut exlibris, and he suggested that there should be a presentation of woodcut printing at the Naantali congress. The NEA asked me to do the job and so I took my first individual overseas flight. I am happy now to have done the work and have returned home with only the loss of my spectacles.
The presentation was given at a long table in a corner of the exchange hall with Mr Uchida acting as translator. I started displaying woodblocks, washi paper, wood-cutting knives, and a baren, the world smallest printing tool(2nd photo from left). The audience showed great interest and rained questions on me. It is always very difficult to explain craftsmanship in words. I relied on the maxim, "Seeing is Believing", and continued the printing. When I was removing the printed paper from the woodblock, the
audience held their breath and fixed their eyes on my hands.  And when they saw the exlibris finished (photo, 3rd from left), there was  loud applause which I cannot forget.  "Thank you, Naantali !", said I to myself.

p.6  Shigeki TOMURA Won Two First Prizes!
Mr. Tomura received the first prize at the International Ex-Libris Competition at the 34th FISAE Congress, Finland 2012.  His 5 exlibris were framed on the wall of the main corridor.  He was also awarded the first prize of Belovezhskaya Pushcha Contest 2009, the award being published in
2012.  Quite a number of Japanese artists received various prizes at the competition in Belarus.  To celebrate Tomura's prize-winning, a small party was arranged by Yasuhiko AOKI at Kanda, Tokyo, on Nov. 4, 2012.  The artist sent to the NEA office the following note of thanks.

p. 6  Thank You Very Much..................Shigeki TOMURA
I sincerely thank you for the pleasant party given for my prize-winning at the Naantali International Exlibris Competition. I have joined as many international exlibris competitions as possible, and when I do so, I always send 'real' exlibris with the customer's name on the plate.  I always do my best with each exlibris and never spare my labour. I believe that exlibris will be highly appreciated as long as those who commission them and artists insist on having the finest quality work.

p. 7  Announcement of the 20th Anniversary of the Sapporo FISAE Congress.
Veterans of the Sapporo FISAE Congress of 1992 have planned a 20th anniversary celebration with an extensive exlibris exhibition and an exchange party.  Exhibitions include (1) Selected 50 frames of The World Exlibris exhibited in 1992.  Daido Gallery 4th floor, Sapporo City, June 20-25, 2013.  (2) Large and Small Prints by local artists in Hokkaido. Daido Gallery 3rd fl.  June 20-25, 2013.  Exchange Party:  June 21 (Fri.) 2013. The venue will be posted to participants who complete postal registration.  Participation fee \5,000yen will be collected at the party.
Overseas members planning to join the party are expected to write to Mr. Ichigoro Uchida, 41-1, Hayamiya 3, Nerima-ku, Tokyo 179-0085 Japan by the end of May 2013. Please note that accommodation should be arranged by the participants.

Pp. 8-9 Tazuo MATSUBISHI's Collection: Gulliver's Travels Exlibris (6)
In Japan about 500 Japanese books of Gulliver's Travels were published in either translation (partial translation in most cases) or as retold for children. The first translation was made by Heizaburo KATAYAMA in 1880 (top and middle photo, p. 8).  A complete translation was made by Toyoichiro
NOGAMI in 1927. Mr. Tazuo MATSUBISHI has built the largest Gulliver's Travels collection in
Japanese, and published A Bibliography of the Gulliver's Travels in the Japanese Language (bottom, p.8) in 2011 containing 528 items.

Pp. 10-11. Overseas Exlibris Artist (34): Yuri YAKOVENKO........ Yasuhiko AOKI
I would like to introduce Juri YAKOVENKO, a Belarusian artist of caprice. He completed his 'Alphabet Exlibris' series in 2011.  He was born in Grodno, Belarus on 28 Dec. 1965 and studied at Belarus Academy of Arts. His major motif is symbolism, and his technique C3, C7.  He has so far produced 350
exlibris.  He received many awards, including the Grand Prize at 2nd International Biennale of Exlibris, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2005.  For other information about the artist, see our newsletter pp. 10-11.

Pp.12-13   Report on the15th National Assembly of the NEA
The NEA National Assembly took place at Shinjuku Washington Hotel on Nov. 3, 2012. About 50 participants, including several from Taiwan, enjoyed bookplate-exchange, prize award ceremonies, a report of the Naantali FISAE Congress, and a dinner. They received 3 publications as souvenirs: (1) Kohei WAKATSUKI Catalog Raisonne (1994-2011), (2) The Illustrated Cat. of Gulliver's Travels Bookplates of Tazuo MATSUBISHI [1987-2009], and (3) The Whole Contents of the NEA Newsletters, Nos. 110-157. Photos were taken by our editor, SUEHIIRO.  You will find messrs. Pan and Wu  and Mr.SATO playing the harmonica on p. 13.

Pp. 14-15. Calendar Artists [Jan., Feb., March, Apr., May & June]
Jan.: Man in kimono, a scene in a bunraku classic by Chikamatsu Monzaemon (S3) by Hideko MATSUBARA for Eiichi HOSHI. Feb.: The artist,Huang Seng-Hsun, was born in Tainan, Taiwan in 1957. Kaisei, male figure in the exlibris (X2) is now awarding marks to successful candidates for examination. He is the god of examinations. Ichigoro Uchida's exlibris. March: A girl with a hat playing the violin (X1) by Hisao SOMEYA for Shinji NAKAI. Apr.: A swallowtail butterfly on azelea (S1) by Yoshiaki HARA for Akira WACHI.  May: Sen no Rikyu and tea ceremony (S4) by Akio HIRATSUKA for Kazuko MORI.
June:Warehouses on the Uzuma River in Tochigi (X2) by Masahiro KURITA for Koichi ISHIZAKI.

p.16 Exlibris Surfing, New Members & Obituary
# Donation of lots of Japanese exlibris by Yasuyuki SASAKI.  # A welcome to 6 new members. #Obituary: Naoto HIDA, Claus WITTAL, Kiyoshi ANMEN, and Shozo KONISHI

Overseas members who wish to have both the exlibris calendar and this newsletter are required to pay \8,000 a year. Please write for more details to the office whose address is found at the head of this summary.(Summarized by Ichigoro Uchida and Cliff Parfit)