Nihon Buyo
Ikko Tanaka
Japanese, 1930–2002
1981
Ikko Tanaka’s Nihon Buyo is an offset lithograph poster that reduces the costume and stylized face of traditional Japanese dance into a bold arrangement of geometric shapes and saturated color to translate performance into modern graphic form.
A tall, grid-like composition of deep black planes, vivid color blocks and a pale central column reads like an abstracted mask—tiny red lips, crescent red-and-black eyes, and a bright cyan circle—whose flat, stage-like planes and abrupt color transitions immediately command attention.
The work exemplifies Tanaka’s influential fusion of Japanese aesthetic motifs with international modernism, showing how graphic design could modernize cultural tradition, shape postwar visual identity, and influence later generations of designers.
Medium
Offset lithograph
Dimensions
40 1/2 x 28 3/4" (103 x 72.8 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the College of Fine Arts, UCLA
Accession
649.1981
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
