Katachi: A Picture Book of Traditional Japanese Workmanship Vol.1-2 (set) Takeji Iwamiya

*Available only in Europe
*This book is secondhand.

The complete two-volume set of Katachi: The Traditional Forms of Japan, photographed by Takeji Iwamiya with text by the art historian Shuji Takashina and design by Yoshio Hayakawa, published by Bijutsu Shuppan-sha in 1962. Organized by material — Volume 1 "Wood, Paper, Clay" and Volume 2 "Stone, Metal, Fiber, Bamboo" — it assembles, in refined monochrome, the beauty of Japanese "form" embodied in tools, architecture, and folk implements. A masterpiece of postwar Japanese book design in which photography and graphic design are tightly fused; the complete set is especially prized.