SHIKEI SENKOKU by [MAVO] HAGIWARA Kyôjiro - 1925

1925. [MAVO] HAGIWARA Kyôjiro. SHIKEI SENKOKU. Tokyo, Taisho 14 [1925]. Prelims, 11pp, 6pp., 161pp., 5pp., finals. Profusely illustrated throughout in linocuts by Okada Tatsuo, Toda Tatsuo, and Yabashi Kimimaro. Wrappers designed by Okada. INCLUDES THE OKADA-DESIGNED SLIPCASE. Perhaps the most important Mavo-inspired volume, and, in its first edition, as here, the rarest. Far more difficult to find than the second edition. The cornerstone of any MAVO collection. I have only seen one other first edition with a slipcase, but it was in horrible condition (though the facsimile produced by the Kindai Bungakkan does have an identical rendering of the black design on white background, so they must have either borrowed or own a copy that they reproduced). Neither the Pompidou show nor the Uruwa Museum catalog illustrate the first edition. They both show the second edition with the red on blue background slipcase. In quite good condition overall, unsophisticated with a bit of rubbing and loss to the fragile spine and soiling and starting to the slipcase. To call it simply rare seems inadequate.