For the first time in Italy, a major exhibition visually recounts the fundamental stages of Japanese graphic design, on a journey that leads from the Edo period (1603–1868) to the present day. The volume aims to offer both general and specialized audiences an additional perspective for reflection beyond what has been proposed so far on the enduring and renewed fascination that Japanese graphic design continues to exert not only on Western foreign audiences but also on Asian and Japanese ones.

Its visual power and effectiveness are marked by a profound bond between sign, image, and color, which often merge, characterizing in different yet unique ways artistic creation, artisanal production, and commercial communication within this culture. This narrative unfolds first in the fashionable graphics of the Floating World, which condense Japan’s original artistic knowledge; then in the technological evolution of the Meiji era, which places graphic design at the service of industrial aims; and finally in postwar production, which defines the contemporaneity of graphic design through posters and manga within an international context, without losing its own cultural identity.