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Rokuro Taniuchi's illustrated covers for the Weekly Shincho (Japan, circa 1956-1981)

1964

These scans are courtesy of Jimoto and his stunning site Dassaishooku. I hope to highlight a few more of his posts in the coming months.

Rokuro Taniuchi (or Roku, as he signed his paintings) is one of my favorite illustrators from any time and any place. Some of his work has been reprinted and is available.

Previous posts on this artist

My note from the first post I did on Roku in October 2008:

I discovered the incredible Japanese illustrator Rokuro Taniuchi (1921–81) while searching for Tadanori Yokoo books. Yokoo is listed as the editor for this profusely-illustrated book—Taniuchi Rokuro Gensouki (Shinshindo, 1981). The book seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth, and I feel incredibly lucky to have found it.

Through some creative googling of Japanese characters, I did manage to dig up an archive [link now dead]. Comparing the book to this site, I discovered that many of the images were originally made for the Weekly Shincho. I think others must surely be illustrations for children's books. The artist dated some of the works: late 40s / early 50s.

The book includes an insert promoting the "Unicorn Color Series." Has anyone heard of this series?
I plan to do another post from this book—it is too good not to share.

1968

1973

1956

1963

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1977

1981

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1960

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1964

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1961

Previous posts on this artist

This post first appeared on February 17, 2014 on 50 Watts