A Message from the Director

Nov. 29, 2013

World Book Design 2012-13

It's that time of year again when we hold our annual Book Design Exhibition. With digital books gaining so much popularity, it might seem old-fashioned to care about book design, but we certainly don't think it is. We firmly believe that the design of a book is on an equal par with its contents, and that the outward beauty of a book’s binding and its printed pages is a major factor when considering a book.

This year marks the twelfth time that we have held such an exhibit, and again we have included books that were winning selections at the World's Most Beautiful Books competition held in Germany in 2013 along with exceptionally well-designed books from eight countries, including Holland, Switzerland, Canada, Austria, Germany, Belgium, China, and Japan. Gaze upon the beauty of the nearly 200 books from around the world on display, and feel free to pick them up gently if you so desire.

The books in our exhibition have been written in many languages, but their design is something that will appeal to people from any country. Because today's world is a global one, I would be happy if we might be able to communicate with our visitors through the "language" of book design, so please visit our Book Design Exhibition featuring selections from around the world.

Koichi Kabayama

Director
Printing Museum, Tokyo

Koichi Kabayama

Director
Printing Museum, Tokyo

Born in Tokyo in 1945. Graduated from the Faculty of Letters at the University of Tokyo in 1965, and after completing the masters degree course at the university became a research assistant at the Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University in 1969. Became an assistant professor at the Faculty of Letters at the University of Tokyo in 1976, and later became a professor. Served as the Director-General of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo from 2001, becoming Director of the Printing Museum, Tokyo in 2005, a position he still holds. His fields of specialization are Western history and Western cultural history.