Poster Auctions International

A geisha is brilliantly abstracted into geometric form: a specialty of Ikko Tanaka, who created a style of graphic design that fused modernist principles and aesthetics with the Japanese tradition. It's probably Tanaka's most representative work, among a portfolio that includes work for Mazda and Issey Miyake. It's one of a series of twelve posters made by Japan’s leading graphic artists for the 1981 Asian Performing Arts Festival held at UCLA. Nihon Buyo refers to a Japanese performing art that includes elements of dance and pantomime.
Toppan Printing Co., Japan
literature: Modern Poster, 280; Japanese Affiches, 9; Best 100 Japanese Posters, p. 77; PAI-LXXXV, 444