Three small volumes of the Shochiku-za movie theater program booklets, 4, 4, and 6 pp. Octavo (8 3/8 x 5 7/8 inches). Original wrappers illustrated with eye-catching and colorful modernist compositions. Light scattered foxing, small scattered perforations, light toning, overall very good. Osaka: Dotonbori Shochikuza, circa 1930.

Shochikuza News was a program booklet handed out at the Shochiku-za movie theater chain. It was first published in 1923, when the Shochiku-za cinema in Osaka opened. It was Japan's first movie theater specializing in showing foreign films, and featured a weekly rotation of films from around the world. The issues featured articles related to the movies being shown, including film reviews, actor profiles or interviews, and fashion pieces. Advertisements by Club Cosmetics helped give the issues the feel of a lifestyle magazine. The issues were published weekly, and each theater produced a separate edition based on what was showing at that particular time. The managers of the theaters served as editors of their edition of the booklet.

The covers changed weekly and were the same across each local edition for that week. Young, mostly unknown artists were commissioned to design the covers. Many of the covers are signed, but a large number of those signatures are indiscernible. Two of the covers included here are signed "Takeshi" and "Sewge". While the former is unknown, "Sewge" was a pseudonym used by Shuji Kawamura, the artist behind a booklet made for the 1929 Japanese release of the film Metropolis. According to Hidenori Okada of the National Film Archive of Japan, "Kawamura belonged to Shochiku-za Theatre in Osaka at that time....Shochiku-za Osaka (built in 1923) is famous in Japan's modern design history for their team of brilliant designers led by Shinkichi Yamada."

These three booklets were likely issued around 1930, based on some of the films that were being presented. These include "Show Girl in Hollywood", "General Crack", "Monte Cristo", "Girl from Woolworths", and "Eternal Love". The covers are marked "11.6", "5.19", and "8.17".

An exceedingly rare publication; as of September 2025, OCLC shows holdings of only a handful of issues at two libraries in North America.

Book ID: 53540

Price: $1,950.00