TOSHIO SAEKI / The Red Box

Toshio Saeki
The Red Box 1972
Hardcover with outer box, Unpaginated
34 x 26cm
Haga Shoten, Tokyo

Signed by Toshio Saeki.

Condition: Fine. Some foxing to the interior pages. The outer slipcase shows a prominent band of fading/discolouration along the left edge, together with minor shelf wear. Internally, the book remains in excellent condition.

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Published by Haga Shoten in Tokyo in 1972, The Red Box (Akai Hako) is Toshio Saeki's third major publication and one of the defining books of his early career. Housed in its striking red slipcase, the volume showcases the vivid erotic and grotesque imagery that established Saeki as one of Japan's most distinctive illustrators during the 1970s.

Unlike his earlier monochrome publications, The Red Box makes dramatic use of two-colour printing, amplifying the tension between humour, violence and eroticism that runs throughout Saeki's work. Drawing equally from shunga, yōkai folklore, manga and post-war popular culture, the images move effortlessly between the absurd and the unsettling, combining technical precision with an irreverent imagination.

Published the same year Saeki's illustrations appeared on John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Some Time in New York City album, The Red Box marks the moment his work began to attract an international audience. Signed examples of this landmark publication are uncommon, making it one of the most desirable of Saeki's early books for collectors of post-war Japanese illustration.