only Tomb x «Bending and Ceremony of the Conqueror»

Post it empty,
Due to scratches, marks, and postmarks
Art completed in mid-air.

The only-box series is a project by poet Takashi Hiraide in which he creates boxes by arranging various postage stamps, stickers, and sometimes stamps. Each box is made individually, with postmarks, scratches, and scuffs, and is completed by treating the boxes to prevent crushing and posting them empty.

This "Homage to Shiki Masaoka" box has a postmark and a bird of a slightly old era. The typeface is Garamond. It was mailed to the Japan Foundation, the Toronto Cultural Centre, for the "Takashi Hiraide Exhibition" held in Toronto in 2016.

Hiraide Takashi is a poet, author, and book designer. While he has written many books of poetry, including "For the Fighting Spirit of Walnuts," he soon gave up on the established poetry and publishing world, and is the founder of the "via wwalnuts" series, in which he personally attaches stamps to the books and sends them out. What's interesting about this only-box series is that it is completed in mid-air. It's impossible to predict what will happen after you mail it, such as accidental scratches or the way the postmark is placed. By having the text engraved on the front, he may be repeating the printing process, regarding mailing as publishing.



only-box «Homage to Shiki Masaoka»

box for 9 brochures of via wwalnuts.
limited to 1.
Type: Garamond
specially designed with semi-old Japanese stamps of poet & bird. the postal cancellation marked.
first sent to Japan Foundation Toronto for TH's exhibition in Autumn of 2016.
then to you as a book post in crystal parcel after the exhibition.
sale prices for hard damage.


Text by Osamu Kushida