SOCKS

An online magazine of Art, Architecture, Media, Culture, Sounds, Territories, Technology)

  • Media
  • Art
  • Architecture
  • Culture
  • Sounds
  • Territories
  • Visual Atlas

The World Explained by Kappa Senoo

December 9, 2013 by Fosco Lucarelli Leave a Comment

kappa-04

 

Kappa Senoo (1930) is a Japanese graphic designer, a successfull set designer, essayist and novelist. A 1997 autobiographical book depicting his childhood, “Shonen H” (“A boy called H: A Childhood in Wartime Japan” in English) became a best-seller in Japan.

Since 1976 he began the publication of a series of volumes each entitled “Kappa peeps (…)”, showing his travel sketches. The books associate descriptive text to black and white illustrations and feature a large number of bird-eye perspective views of interior rooms, a technique employed by the author in order to describe carefully every single item he finds. This technique obviously reminds us Atelier Bow Wow‘s famous technical perspectives collected in the “Graphic Anatomy” publication.

 

 

kappa-cover-01

 

kappa-Japan-08

In “Kappa peeps Europe”, published after his one-year stay in the continent, the author obsessively depicted in plan and perspective every hotel room he slept in. The drawings are combined with all kind of written information (addresses and numbers, as well as small notes about the countries habits). Apart from the rooms, he also drew trains interiors, uniforms, food, monuments and everyday objects. The subjects were analyzed through different drawing projections with a definite and meticulous style. A special attention was addressed to the depiction of toilets, a subject to which he later dedicated a whole book.

After the success of this first publication he started an ongoing series of 12 titles, so far. The other books show a growing attention to details and an attempt to visually describe an ever larger spectrum of subjects: from recipes to vehicles, machines, maps, landscapes and basically everything arousing Kappa’s infinite curiosity.

Copyright of the images owned by the author

Books available on Amazon.

 

kappa-kappa-01

 

 

kappa-02

 

 

 

kappa-03

 

 

kappa-Europe-01

kappa-Europe-02

kappa-Europe-03

kappa-Europe-04

kappa-Europe-05

kappa-India-01

kappa-India-02

kappa-India-03

kappa-India-04

 

kappa-Japan-01

kappa-Japan-02

 

kappa-Japan-04

 

 

kappa-Japan-05

kappa-Japan-06

kappa-Japan-07

 

 

Related Posts

  • The world and its adventure

    Scans from various 1950's educational books Illustrator: F.H.K. Henrion and others. Via: Mondorama2000 and Rainbow…

  • Architecture without contents studio at Mendrisio

    Beautiful set posted at NLDR of Ed Ruscha-like architectural landscapes from Architecture Without Contents' studio…

  • Architecture Without Humans

    Factory Futures, (Architecture Without Humans), a studio of AA Visiting School at Ivrea, directed by…

  • The Mechanical-Architectural World of Stijn Jonckheere

    Stijn Jonckheere, a Belgian self-titled "experimental architect", works on the brink of architecture, illustration and…

  • Pierre-Antoine Marraud, Proposal for a Dystopian Architecture

    Some days ago I've been invited as part of the final jury for Pierre-Antoine Marraud…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr

Socks is a non-linear journey through distant territories of human imagination.

About | Visual Atlas | Topics

We are Mariabruna Fabrizi and Fosco Lucarelli from Microcities. Ask us anything

  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr


SOCKS is a project by Fosco Lucarelli and Mariabruna Fabrizi of MICROCITIES, Architecture Cityscape, Landscape.
Except where otherwise noted, the content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license.
Whenever possible we try to attribute content (images, videos, and quotes) to their creators and original sources. Please feel free to write us if you notice misattributions or wish something to be removed.
SOCKS is powered by WordPress.