The Same, But Not As Good

For your edification: the cover of Natsume Sōseki's charming Kusamakura, from Penguin Classics last year...



..and the cover of Yukio Mishima's uneasily compelling Thirst for Love, from Vintage Classics UK next year.




The Sōseki cover is actually not obscured by that leaf pattern as the above scan suggests: it's done with spot varnish, so is visible only when the light hits the cover at a certain angle. (Though the Vintage does have one advantage: that 'New Translation' thing on the Penguin cover is printed on, not a removable sticker.)

The original image is Hashiguchi Goyô's woodblock print 'A Beauty in a Black Kimono with White Hanabashi Patterns Seated Before a Mirror'.



It's an appropriate artistic choice for the Sōseki, as Goyô worked with him on his peculiar comic 'novel, 'I Am A Cat'.



I actually saw 'A Beauty in a Black Kimono with White Hanabashi Patterns Seated Before a Mirror' in Sydney last year, as part of an ehibition called 'Taishô Chic': a fascinating but small collection of Art Deco/Jazz Age Japanese artworks full of images of kimonos, Rolls Royces, cocktails and bright red lipstick. A characterisitic sample from that show is Kiyoshi Kobayakawa's 'Tipsy':



Just to round things out, here's some more work by Goyô.





And if you want a song stuck in your head, try irresistably chirpy Japanese all-girl punk-rock legends Shonen Knife's 'I Am A Cat'.



UPDATE: 'A Beauty in a Black Kimono with White Hanabashi Patterns Seated Before a Mirror' spotted on another cover, this time from France...