Shuzo Takiguchi Distance of a Fairy and Sphinx
Saturday, April 25 ― Sunday, July 26, 2026 13：00－18：00
Open only on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays
Shuzo Takiguchi , who introduced Surrealism to Japan and dedicated his life to its promotion, collaborated with several artists on collection books of poems and illustration both before and after the world war Ⅱ. This exhibition will feature the “Distance of a Fairy,” a collaboration with Yoshifumi Abe (later known as Nobuya), and “Sphinx,” a collaboration with six painters and printmakers.
The English title of ｔhe “Distance of a Fairy” is based on the notation written in the copy formerly owned by Nobuya Abe.
The “Distance of Fairies” is a collection of poems and illustrations co-authored with Yoshifumi Abe, combining Abe’s collotype-printed pencil drawings with poems by Takiguchi. It was published on October 15, 1937, by Masao Ohshita, and published by Shunchokai (later Bijutsu Shuppansha), priced at 2 yen and had a print run of 100 copies. Many copies are believed to have been lost in the war, and it is considered a representative rare book not only of Takiguchi’s work but also of Japanese avant-garde poetry collections. After the war, it was Takiguchi’s only collection of poems until “Shuzo Takiguchi’s Poetic Experiments 1927-1937” (Shichosha, 1967) was published. At the time of publication, Abe was 24 years old, and two years later, in 1939, he joined the Bijutsu Bunka Kyokai (Art and Culture Association). This book was also exhibited at the first exhibition of the Takemiya Gallery, which Takiguchi took over running free of charge after the war: “Abe Nobuya Solo Exhibition of Drawings and Oil Paintings” (June 1st-15th, 1951). 1937, the year it was published, was also the year that the “Overseas Surrealist Works Exhibition,” realized through the efforts of Takiguchi and Tiroux Yamanaka, toured various locations. The copy exhibited here is the 14th of 100 copies, a dedication book addressed to Yamanaka, and can be considered a monumental work commemorating the introduction and spread of Surrealism in Japan.
“Sphinx” is a collection book of poems and prints in which six artists—Tamiji Kitagawa, Q-Ei, Shigeru Izumi, Tadashi Kato, Kojin Toneyama, and Toshiko Aohara (Uchima)—each selected one of Takiguchi’s previously published poems and combined it with their own printmaking works. Fifty copies were published in 1954 as a private edition by Sadajiro Kubo. Kubo was also famous as an art critic, collector, and patron, and was actively involved in art education, later becoming the president of Atomi Gakuen Women’s Junior College and the first director of the Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts. The six printmakers were all close to Kubo. Kitagawa co-founded the Creative Art Education Association with Kubo, and the other five artists, as well as Tatsuo Fukushima, who edited the book, and Ryuichi Yamashiro, who designed the cover, were all members of the Democrat Artists Association, which Kubo supported. The copy of the “Sphinx” on display is the first of 50 copies published, formerly owned by Sadajiro Kubo himself, and bears the handwritten signatures of Kitagawa, Takiguchi, and Kubo.
This exhibition offers a rare opportunity to see the “Distance of Fairies” and the “Sphinx” side by side. We hope it will be a starting point to reconsider what each collection book of poems and illustrations meant to Takiguchi himself and to the various artists involved.
