Rokuro Taniuchi 11, originally uploaded by A Journey Round My Skull.
For nearly 26 years beginning in 1956, Taniuchi Rokuro's painted over 1300 covers for Shukan Shincho, the pioneering weekly news and literary magazine in Japan. Which makes him, I guess the kawaii Norman Rockwell of Japan.
And the Shukan Shincho covers are just one body of Taniuchi's work. Will has pulled together a sweet selection of story illustrations, both on flickr and on A Journey Round My Skull.
The text on this one says just what you'd expect: a little kid wonders where the red stripe on the barber pole comes from, and where it disappears to. She also notes that some beauty parlors have no poles or stripes at all, just painted signs.
In 2007, the Art Museum in Yokosuka opened a Taniuchi Rokuro annex that contains original paintings. And Taniuchi's estate's official site, maintained, it seems, by his daughter, has news on the regular stream of exhibitions and goods that somehow never seem to leave Japan.
Rokuro Taniuchi 2 [a journey round my skull]
Yokosuka: Taniuchi Rokuro Annex [geocities]
Taniuchi Rokuro official website [mac.com/koyake]
Feeling adventurous? Search Google for 谷内六郎 [google]
