The Origin of Japanese Packaging 

Hideyuki Oka (1905-1995), a pioneer of Japanese art directors and graphic designers, used traditional Japanese packaging made of natural materials such as wooden boxes, paper wraps, bamboo baskets, and straw wraps because of his profession. Fascinated by its beautiful shape, it was collected all over the country. He gradually became interested in the act of “wrapping” itself, and began to see what resided there as the peculiar “aesthetic consciousness” that the Japanese culture had nurtured.

Hideyuki Oka produced a book about traditional packages under his own art direction. He has gained a great reputation overseas, and exhibitions on this theme have traveled around the world and have been held at 100 locations in 28 countries. This book is based on the “Package” published by The Mainichi Newspapers in 1972, and is a pictorial record of the 2011 “Wrap: Japanese Traditional Package” exhibition (published by Meguro Museum of Art, BNN Shinsha). This is a newly re-edited version of “Hideyuki Oka” by Ichiro Saga (Tama Art University), a design historian.

Softcover  I  19 x 27 cm  I  223 pages  I  Japanese