Showa Modern: 1920s-30s Japanese Sign & Store Design public space Through Bobby’s camera the mud

Through Bobby’s camera the mud and mixture of the human and natural world are flattened and shimmer with wonder

and uncertainty’

Herrlich mondäne Beobachtungen eines Kosmopoliten

shared laughter

Showa Modern: 1920s-30s Japanese Sign & Store Design public space Through Bobby’s camera the mudThe signs, street and window displays, and other designs gathered in the pages are from a time of enormous change in Japanese cities that is known as the age of Showa Modern. Western modes and fashions entered Japans thriving cultural spheres at a dizzying pace. As advertisements, signs are destined to eventually be taken down or replaced, but even so they are an integral part of the urban scenery. Although the designs featured here are a century old,