NIPPON No Natsu―Okyo, Utamaro, Hokusai Kara "Kimono" Made (Japanese summer―from Okyo, Utamaro, and Hokusai to "Kimono") (2008)

Client: Mitsui Memorial Museum

The client for this project was Mitsui Memorial Museum in Nihonbashi, Tokyo.

Takahashi used a synthesized image of mosquito netting to fill the front cover, the spine, and the back cover, and placed fireflies here and there to represent a summer in the Edo period. Her intention was to take old summer imageries and reproduce them in a contemporary setting. To give the book a cool feel, light blue tracing paper was used, and to enhance readability for readers of all generations, photographs, paintings, and text were enlarged as much as possible.

For the pages dedicated to long emaki-mono (picture scrolls), Takahashi invented an ingenious way to show the entire scroll and to add descriptions. It was another enjoyable design.