“Sometimes a book drops through the letter box that turns out to be just the one you never knew you needed. Taylor Mignon’s Visual Poetry of Japan: 1684–2023 is, it turns out, just such a book.”

Billy Mills

Literary journalist

Front cover: The Buddhist monk Kūya in a late Kamakura period sculpture by Kōshō, reproduced by Isumu (Morita, Inc.) and photographed by Nakamura Shigeru (2014), with image manipulation by Shikama Hiroko and Rick Elizaga.

Updates

Visual Poetry of Japan: 1684–2023 collects a multitude of Japanese poetic, aesthetic and visual expressive forms into an overview of works spanning more than 300 years. From visual translations of Bashō to Taishō-era textual manipulation of characters, to Yamamoto Kansuke’s lexical verse and surreal photography to John Solt’s postcard art, this curated set of haiku, calligrams, collages, concrete poems, and other works offers extraordinary visions to the eye, mind and heart.

  • Asemic Writing
  • Calligrams
  • Calligraphy
  • Collages
  • Concrete Poems
  • Haiku
  • Japanese Translations
  • Lexical Poems
  • Mail Art
  • Photography
  • Visual Poems

English, 108 pages, color. Edited by Taylor Mignon. Coedited & Designed by Rick Elizaga. Introduction by Andrew Campana.

Taylor Mignon’s previous books include VOU: Visual Poetry Tokio, 1958-1978 (Isobar Press, 2021) and Bearded Cones & Pleasure Blades: The Collected Poems of Torii Shōzō (highmoonoon, 2013).

“Visual-poetry combines
visual art and
poetic sensibility by
manipulating
images and letterforms.”

Karl Jirgens

Writer, editor and professor emeritus at the University of Windsor, Ontario

background image: detail of “AI-Generated 3D poetry,” by Adachi Tomomi, 2023

Book Launch

Photos of the launch event at Morgan Salon, Tokyo on Dec. 16, 2023

Limited edition hardcover books await launch attendees.
A full house at Morgan Fisher Salon, Tokyo.
Editor and MC Taylor Mignon at the mic.
John Solt and Aoki Eiko read at the evening launch.
Musician and host Morgan Fisher at his keyboards.

Watch videos of the book launch performances and more.

Inside the Book

Some of the 110 color pages of Visual Poetry of Japan: 1684–2023

“View from a Balcony of an Early Summer Street,” by Hagiwara Kyojiro, 1925; translation by Kevin Shadel, 2018
“View from a Balcony of an Early Summer Street,” by Hagiwara Kyōjirō, 1925; translation by Kevin Shadel, 2018
“3-minute Alpha,” by Tsuji Setsuko, 1965; translation by Taylor Mignon and Andrew Campana, 2019
“3-minute Alpha,” by Tsuji Setsuko, 1965; translation by Taylor Mignon and Andrew Campana, 2019
“Heavenly Fields,” by Rona Conti, 2014
“Heavenly Fields,” by Rona Conti, 2014
“Op. 022,” by Tsuji Setsuko, 1969
“Op. 022,” by Tsuji Setsuko, 1969
“becoming spoiled” by Yamanaka Ryojiro, 1987; and “getting away,” by Tanabu Hiroshi, 1991
“becoming spoiled” by Yamanaka Ryojiro, 1987; and “getting away,” by Tanabu Hiroshi, 1991
Section divider page; asemic calligraphy by Eric Selland, 2022
Section divider page; calligraphy by Eric Selland, 2022
“Oto kage / Sound shadow,” by Yoshizawa Shoji, 2003
“Oto kage / Sound shadow,” by Yoshizawa Shoji, 2003
“Under rose flowers...,” by Yamamoto Kansuke and “Op. 021,” by Tsuji Setsuko
“Under rose flowers…,” by Yamamoto Kansuke and “Op. 021,” by Tsuji Setsuko
“Wind’s Glass,” by Torii Ryōzen, 1957; translation by Andy Houwen, 2023
“Wind’s Glass,” by Torii Ryōzen, 1957; translation by Andy Houwen, 2023

“…these works do something I see as the most valuable thing poetry can do: they invite you to make poems of your own. It’s impossible to read through these and not be inspired with ideas for creating visual poems. They also seem to linger with you and reshape your experience of the world; soon enough, you start to see visual poetry everywhere.”

Andrew Campana

Assistant Professor of Japanese Literature, Cornell University

background image: detail of “Ensemble,” by Renkichi Hirato, 1921

Contact Taylor Mignon