[JAPANESE ART DECO DESIGNS FOR "MODERN GIRLS" 1930]. Four decorated wrappers for Japanese Harmonica Sheet Music

[Various authors]

Verlag: Hakubi Shuppansha, Aporo Shuppansha, Tokyo, 1930

Together 4 items, folio (ca. 265 x 190 mm). A SMALL ASSEMBLAGE OF FABULOUS ART DECO COMMERCIAL ART, BEING FOUR HARMONICA SCORES MARKETED EXPRESSLY TO "MOGA," OR FREE-SPIRITED JAPANESE "MODERN GIRLS" OF THE EARLY 30s. The present harmonica scores were clearly intended for cosmopolitan Japanese MOGA, Japan's first recognizable youth culture: these young women rejected traditional kimonos and conservative societal values to embrace mass consumerism and Western cultural imports such as Hollywood films, department stores, dance halls, jazz orchestras, pants, cigarettes, and the modern city. MOGA began to wear their hair (and their skirts) short in the style of American flappers, while men dressed as dandified French garçonnes. These women removed themselves from the previous state-mandated expectations and laws: while exuding a sense of independence, MOGA attracted widespread criticism, but their influence remains to this day. MOGA were Japan's equivalent of America's Flappers, Germany's Neue Frauen, France's Garconnes, and China's Modeng Xiaojie. The advent of the "modern girl" in Japanese society cannot be overestimated: MOGA were financially and emotionally independent, consumeristic, and sexually liberated. The present Art Deco sheet music designs reflects the commercialization of MOGA: the bold graphics depict confident-looking woman in a loosely fitted (western) button-up shirt; a woman in fashionable 1930s attire enjoys some alcohol; a woman with slightly reddish hair is provocatively posed in front of a night sky; and finally a woman in black lace gazes at the viewer coquettishly. Furthermore, in our collection the musical instrument is of western origin, and the music scores themselves open up in the "western" manner. These items perfectly contextualizes MOGA within the craze for Hollywood films and American fashion, mass production and mass consumption, and the growing consumer market for "modern girls." CONTENTS OF THE COLLECTION: 1. Kono Taiyo ("This Sun"), No. 33 of the Apollo Harmonica Specially Selected Sheet Music series. Wrappers illustrated by Imai Hisamaro. 2. Mado ni Motarete ("Against the Window"), No. 111 of the Hakubi Ch?-tokusen. Score loosely inserted. 3. Uruhashi no Yoi ("Beautiful Evening"), No. 113 of the Hakubi Ch?-tokusen Gakufu series. Score loosely inserted. 4. Ginza Seren?de ("Ginza Serenade"), No. 24 of the Aporo H?monika Tokusen Gakufu series. Wrappers illustrated by "Kuma". DELIGHTFUL ART DECO COMMERCIAL DESIGN WHICH CELEBRATES "LIBERATED" JAPANESE WOMEN. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 3774

Bibliografische Details

Titel: [JAPANESE ART DECO DESIGNS FOR "MODERN GIRLS...
Verlag: Hakubi Shuppansha, Aporo Shuppansha, Tokyo
Erscheinungsdatum: 1930
Einband: Softcover
Zustand: Very good
Auflage: First Edition.