Today, I would like to introduce “Mincho Type: Its Origin and Formation,” written by Hiroshi Komiyama.
It is a heavy, large-sized book with a lot of content. However, Mr. Komiyama’s simple style of writing and carefully designed pages are easy to read and guide the reader through the text along with the related illustrations.
This book started from the question: “Was Mincho typeface in metal type possibly created by European people and not Chinese people?” The book indicates that, not limited to Asian countries, but European countries, such as France, England, and Austria, were also involved in the formation of the Mincho typeface. Furthermore, in terms of how it passed to Japan and developed domestically to the present day – the book attempts to clarify long and broad history of the Mincho typeface.
Note that the abundance of materials are collected in almost the actual size, so the type size can be checked in detail, and the character size of text in Chapter 8, Type in metal, wood or clay, is fixed in size. Having a clarified size enables further definite design. The real size this book provides made me realize the factor of clear beauty of characters at the time.
Book Information:
“Mincho Type: Its Origin and Formation”
Author: Hiroshi Komiyama
Publisher: Graphic-sha Publishing Co., Ltd.
Purchase Information:
Graphic-sha Publishing Co., Ltd.
http://www.graphicsha.co.jp/detail.html?p=42704
（T.I）
Series archive Recommended Book / Book of the Month
- Book of the Month (November 2024): “There are Characters”
- Book of the Month (October 2024): “Man and Writing”
- Book of the Month (June 2024): “New Design Guide: Design of Japanese Language”
- Book of the Month (April 2024): “Mincho Type: Its Origin and Formation”
- Book of the Month (February 2024): “Stroll with Typography: Observation of Characters on the Road”
- Book of the Month (September 2023): “Shintaro Ajioka’s Typeface Course”
- Book of the Month (July 2023): “Men Who are Possessed by the Type”
- Book of the Month (February 2023) : “The Visual History of Type”
- Book of the Month (December 2022) : “Reading Letters”
- Book of the Month (October 2022): “SANS SERIF”
- Book of the Month (June 2022): “’Typeface’ is Created”
- Book of the Month (March 2022): “Size-specific adjustments to type designs”
- Book of the Month (December 2021): “The Field Guide to Typography: Typefaces in the Urban Landscape”
- Book of the Month (November 2021): “Designing Type”
- Book of the Month (October 2021): “Writing Vertically Creates the Scenery of Words – Why Do We Need Two Japanese Writings in Vertical and Horizontal?”
- Book of the Month (September 2021): “Kanji, Katakana, and Hiragana – History of Japanese Notation”
- Book of the Month (August 2021): “Scripts: Elegant Lettering from Design’s Golden Age”