In various places in the text
Leaving a blank space,
The book was delivered unfinished.

This book was prepared by the book designer Masakatsu Naito, bound by himself and published by the private publisher "Seiensho", and is not for sale. It was written by Shozo Saito, who had previously published "Stories of Ex-libraries" and "Ancient Ex-libraries of Japan". The theme of this book is the history of erotic book-keeping in Japan.

But when you turn the pages, it's not that erotic. Since it was published in 1947, this may have been the limit. However, the library card designs, which feature stylized shells and shop curtains, are rather stylish, and in the world of small, promo photos, there are many Ex Libris designs in the style of Suzuki Harunobu and Santo Kyoden. Above all, the binding is wonderful.

What makes this book interesting is not only that it is a rare resource for design, but also that it was delivered to us unfinished.

If you look closely at the text, you'll see that separate illustrations have been pasted between the typesetting. Naito decided to hand-bind 250 copies even though he wasn't going to sell them. That's a bit crazy. However, perhaps because he was bad at estimating time, he couldn't paste in the illustrations in time, as expected. So he just inserted a note of apology saying "We'll deliver it later," and published the book, leaving the spaces where the illustrations should have been pasted blank.

The book is complete, with an apology for not completing it in time and the "unbound exlibris" that was delivered later.I don't know if there was an option to delay the release, but there is a blank area here.We are left with the joy of imagining how the events unfolded.



Text by Osamu Kushida