𝚜𝚊𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚟𝚎𝚕𝚟𝚎𝚝: 26

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

26

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♡♡♡ e n t r y 26 ♡♡♡

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official flyer for the exhibit & accompanying book

had the pleasure to visit mie prefecture this golden week (for those that have no idea what that means, it's basically a week of public holidays that spans a week here in japan). On "children's day" (may 5th), we took a roadtrip to yokkaichi city municipal museum, where there was a lovely exhibit featuring many known & unknown japanese artists during the taisho era (1912-1926). the theme was "the world of taisho imagery: designs that add color to everyday life." this happens to be my favorite époque for it coincides with what was happening in the west with art nouveau & art deco, emphasizing new innovations of mass printmaking in japan making stylish designs available to all via magazines, postcards & envelopes. one of the most illuminating discoveries to me was the introduction of printmaker artist, kaichi kobayashi. on display features ~some~ of his gorgeous envelope print collections (limited, unfortunately not complete). his style is whimsical, romantic, & wistful; with reoccurring motifs of bleeding hearts, flowers, the female form, playing cards, candles, keys, etc (all of my favorite symbols & imagery--i feel like his work was speaking to me personally). along with kobayashi, there were pieces from more well known artists like, yumeji takehisa. below i will share some of my personal favorites that were featured.

just look how handsome & dapper he looked ! (these were shared by his son, who had no idea that his father was an incredible artist; this was revealed back in 2008)

EDIT: i later purchased two artbooks online that featured more of kobayashi's work & i'll feature those as well. as i was reading through his book of collected work, & there was mention that his work was not, "..girly, but girlhood itself."