The Marius B. Jansen Memorial Lecture: TRANSWAR DESIGN – Kamekura Yūsaku from Nippon Kōbō to the Tokyo Olympics

Renowned designer and art director, Kamekura Yūsaku (1915-1997) is widely heralded as a pillar of the postwar Japanese design field.  As a founding member of the influential Japan Advertising Artists Club in 1951, and key designer for both the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and the 1970 World Exposition in Osaka, Kamekura’s enormous contribution to the public visual sphere is indisputable. But despite the standard emphasis on Kamekura’s postwar triumph, his success was not simply a postwar phenomenon. It was built on a deep foundation of design practice and a professional network developed in the 1930s and 40s, when he worked with some of the most talented designers of the period at Nippon Kōbō design studio. This lecture will explore Kamekura’s work during and after the Asia-Pacific War to excavate the transwar continuities of Japanese design in the service of commerce and the nation.