Haishoku sokan

WADA, Sanzo. Haishoku sokan. Six volumes of plates and two loose folded card leaves. The plate volumes constitute a total of 348 accordion folding card leaves with mounted colour samples arranged in twos in the first two volumes, threes in the next two, and fours in the last two. The colour samples are all mounted and captioned in Japanese and English. 8vo., 195 x 130 mm bound in publisher's cloth preserved in the publisher's cloth slipcase. Tokyo: Hakubisha, 1933-34.

A truly spectacular work on colour theory, which as an aesthetic object can take its place alongside the works of Chevreul, Albers and Matiushin. Wada, who lived from 1883 to 1967 is primarily known to the general public for his early paintings, and for winning an Academy Award in 1955 for the costume design in the film Gates of Hell. However, it is really for his pioneering studies in color theory that Wada is perhaps best remembered. In 1927 he founded the Japan Standard Color Association, and its successor, the Japan Color Research Institute is still in operation today. This is his magnum opus on colour theory, and such is its importance, that it has recently been reprinted. This is a book of great beauty and rarity, with OCLC listing only 6 copies in the US at the: Metropolitan Museum, Huntington Library, Getty, National Gallery, Princeton and the Faber Birren Collection at Yale. Slight soiling to the slipcase and wear to the paper label, but overall a fine copy of a real treasure.