Shiseido Art House Exhibition
－ Dreaming of Edo －The Works of KOMURA Settai
Crafts for All of Us Selection 2026
－Living Beautifully: Room Decorations for the Four Seasons－
March 12（Thu） — July 4（Sat）, 2026
We held an exhibition dedicated to the painter Settai Komura (1887–1940), who was active from the Taisho era through the early Showa era.
After graduating from the Department of Japanese Painting at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts (now Tokyo University of the Arts), Settai engaged in various types of work; he garnered high acclaim in 1914 for designing the book cover for Izumi Kyōka’s novel *Nihonbashi*. From 1918 to 1923, he worked in the newly established design department at Shiseido, where he created designs with a distinctively Japanese aesthetic—setting them apart from the Western-style designs that dominated the era. Even after leaving the company, he maintained a deep connection with it, notably creating the "Shiseido typeface"—which remains in use today and serves as the foundation for the company's Japanese-language logo.
Settai was active in a wide range of fields beyond Japanese painting, including book illustration, book design, stage design, and historical research for films. He left behind numerous masterpieces, particularly in the realm of illustration; for works set in the Edo period, he employed a lyrical brushstroke to craft sophisticated, graceful, and elegant monochrome worlds.
This exhibition presented the world of Settai Komura, who meticulously depicted the fading traces of Edo and its beautiful customs through his lyrical artistic style. The venue showcased over 140 of his works, including original illustrations, stage design sketches, woodblock prints, designed books, and pieces created during his tenure at Shiseido.
We also held the " Crafts for All of Us Selection 2026－Living Beautifully: Room Decorations for the Four Seasons－"