Today, I would like to introduce “A Compilation of Contemporary Letter Designs.”

This is the new reprint edition of “A Compilation of Contemporary Letter Designs,” originally published in 1934.
Various characters composed by designers in the early Showa era are collected in seven chapters of designed characters, as well as characters in film theater advertisement characters, products, typeface, and print. Also included are iroha characters (47 kana characters expressed in pattern), alphabetical character design, monograms, and marks. The work is described from corner to corner on all pages, resulting in considerable volume despite the book’s small size.
How would you like to experience the creator’s intentions at the time through the characters while looking at the detailed processing and course of design?
Book Information:
“A Compilation of Contemporary Letter Designs”
Author: Katsumi Tsuji
Publisher: Seigensha Art Publishing, Inc.
Purchase Information
Books Kinokuniya
https://www.kinokuniya.co.jp/f/dsg-01-9784861524677
(NM)
Series archive Recommended Book / Book of the Month
- Book of the Month (March 2025): “A Compilation of Contemporary Letter Designs”
- 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”