Whenever I trace the source of a form that I find beautiful, it always leads me back to the world of the sacred.
Seiji Onishi

Industrial designer Seiji Onishi is best known for designing an extraordinary range of products—from Komatsu forklifts to Japanese military vehicles. Yet among collectors of Japanese antiques and vernacular objects, he is equally renowned as a passionate and discerning collector.

This book presents more than fifty carefully selected photographs from Onishi's collection of nearly two hundred Japanese aluminium objects, accumulated over many decades. Accompanying each object is his own reflection on form, function, and beauty. This edition is a revised and expanded version of the volume first published by Rutles in 2009, featuring three newly added aluminium objects. The book was designed by Nobuhiro Yamaguchi.

The story of aluminium in Japan begins in the 1880s. In 1893, Tokusaburo Ota of the Osaka Arsenal submitted a report to Army Minister Iwao Oyama describing experiments with an aluminium-copper alloy then known as bansodō. From the outset, aluminium was regarded as a strategic material for military production, and increasing its domestic manufacture became an important national priority.

By 1898, aluminium production had begun in earnest. Its light weight made it indispensable for aircraft construction, and during the first half of the twentieth century—particularly after the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War—demand increased dramatically as aluminium became the principal ingredient of duralumin, the alloy used in the construction of the famous Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter aircraft. When the war ended, however, enormous quantities of surplus aluminium flowed from military factories into small workshops throughout Japan.

It is here that Onishi's story truly begins.

The objects gathered in this book range from dice, megaphones, and baby rattles to hand fans, low dining tables, and Buddhist temple bells. During the difficult years immediately following the war, when iron, copper, and timber were scarce, aluminium became the material of everyday life. Countless household objects were produced from recycled aluminium, transforming a material once reserved for warfare into one of domestic necessity.

Born in 1944, Onishi spent his childhood surrounded by these humble aluminium products. For him, they represented his first encounter with design—not the celebrated works found in design history books, but anonymous objects created without famous designers, born simply from necessity, ingenuity, and everyday life.

To mark the first new edition in fourteen years, FRAGILE BOOKS has produced a Special Edition limited to 100 numbered copies.

This edition features an exclusive silver cover unavailable in the standard edition. Each cover has been individually hand-sanded to evoke the soft, weathered surface of aged aluminium. As every copy is finished by hand, the texture and appearance of each cover are unique.