Brochure contents by Hollis Goodall: Ohie Toshio is an artisan at the highest level, and an exemplar of the long tradition of Japanese adoption and adaptation of foreign art forms. There is no history of the bound book as luxury item in Japan. That was a practice based in France and brought to Japan by Ohie Toshio for the first time from that country. While in Japan there were illustrated books which stood on their own as splendid works of graphic art, the idea of the luxurious binding enwrapping contents with specially selected font and paper to suit the writing, and with illustrations by top artists, was unfamiliar in Japan and did not immediately take hold. A decade passed after Ohie’s return from eight years of study in France before patrons began to see their favorite works of literature as something to be enshrined in a luxury binding.
Decorative bookbinding had to be brought in line with Japanese taste before the local audience could appreciate it. Ohie has compared this to the introduction of Western food to Japan over time which began in the 16th century. Once selected European food types could be incorporated into the formal Japanese meal, consisting of small bites of a set array of tastes, then it became palatable, and people sought more variety. In the same way, in book interiors the introduction of deluxe Japanese papers, such as ganpi or mitsumata, and on bindings the use of mosaic-onlaid leathers in Japanese color harmonies, as well as incorporation of frontispiece illustrations by highly popular Japanese artists such as Yamamoto Yōko or Karasawa Hitoshi, have whetted the appetite of patrons who support Ohie’s bookbinding art.