Showa Modern – 1920s–30s Japanese Sign & Store Design

From signs and shop windows to street displays and original lettering, this book introduces more than 200 examples of Japanese design from the 1920s and 1930s. During this exciting time of westernisation and urban transformation celebrated today as the age of “Showa Modern,” Western-style cafés, bars, and boutiques lined the streets and cosmopolitan culture blossomed, with the designs on these pages, too, playing their part as key elements of the new cityscapes.

Witness the imagination and diverse appeal of the design pioneers who worked during this glamorous era.