Juzo Takaoka

was a Japanese letterpress printer specializing in Western typesetting. He was advisor to the Kazui Press Limited, a letterpress company in Tokyo, Japan, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, UK.

Personal history and profile

Juzo Takaoka was born in Tokyo in 1921. His father was a traditional Japanese bookbinder. Never caring much about money, his father was always poor, as were most craftspersons in those days. He paid little attention to his son's education. Inouye, a lover of Western letterpress printing, worked in London between 1934 and 1939 as representative of major Japanese shipping company Nippon Yusen. While overseas, he developed expertise in Western typography and acquired a small printing press and types, enough to become an amateur printer.

Enthralled by Inouye's lectures, Takaoka desperately wanted to become Inouye's apprentice. He persistently went to his home with work samples in hand to seek his permission. Though he was repeatedly turned away, Takaoka was finally accepted as Inouye's disciple in 1940 thanks to the mediation of Inouye's wife, Kimiko. He was the only member of the Study Group to be accepted as an apprentice.

During the apprenticeship period, Takaoka used to go to Maruzen, the most prestigious bookstore in Tokyo at that time, to look for books on Western typography, whenever he had spare time and a bit of cash. Sticking out among the properly dressed clients with his poor attire, he could not possibly have been seen as a good customer, but the head clerk of Maruzen appreciated Takaoka's genuine enthusiasm for Western typography and often kept books aside for him and even paid for some of them himself. a publisher under the direct control of the Imperial Japanese Army. His printed specimens made a strong impression on the BPS members, including Kenneth Hardacre of the Kit-Cat Press, John Easson of the Quarto Press, and Paul Peter Piech of the Taurus Press, all of whom became his lifelong friends. and the Cardozo Kindersley Workshop (formerly, David Kindersley Workshop), Cambridge.

Takaoka received the Overseas Award in both 1975 and 1984 and the Printer of the Year Award ’89 in 1990 from BPS. who is known for his design of the New Johnston typeface for London Underground and the Meiryo type for Microsoft, attended Friday Salon, and his longtime student-teacher relationship with Takaoka continued to this day. Akira Kobayashi, type director at Monotype GmbH, has also looked up to Takaoka as his mentor since their first meeting in the 1990s. Both Kono and Kobayashi travelled to Europe with Takaoka many times to visit places of relevance to typography.

My Study of Letterpress Typography, a collection of Takaoka's letterpress studies created mainly in the 1970s, was published in 2013.

That same year, Takaoka visited the UK at the invitation of the Double Crown Club and attended the Club's dinner as Kono's guest.

In 2014, Kono contributed an article about Takaoka's long career as letterpress printer to Matrix 32, which is published by the Whittington Press. For the article, John Randle of the Whittington Press wrote an introduction in which he says:

Letterpress studies While working as a commercial printer, Takaoka created several collections of letterpress studies: Light Up, Won’t You? (1942) Ars Typographica 1 (1970, reprinted in 1972) Wandering from Type to Type (1973) Wandering from Type to Type · Two (1979)

Takaoka's letterpress studies in the 1970s were highly regarded overseas for the high level of skill and understanding of Western typography that they demonstrated. These works are included in My Study of Letterpress Typography.

Authored books (in Japanese) Ōbun katsuji [Latin types]. Tokyo: Insatsu Gakkai Shuppanbu, 1948 (first edition), 2001 and 2004 (reprinted editions). Ōbun katsuji [Latin types]. Tokyo: Uyu Shorin, 2010 (new format edition). Takaoka Jūzō kappan shūsakushū: My Study of Letterpress Typography. Tokyo: Uyu Shorin, 2013.

Coauthored and edited books (in Japanese) Ōbun katsuji to taipogurafi [Latin types and typography]. Tokyo: Insatsu Gakkai Shuppanbu, 1966 (coauthor). Inouye, Yoshimitsu, and Tarō Shimo. Rōmaji insatsu kenkyū [Roman alphabet print research]. Tokyo: Dai Nippon Insatsu ICC Honbu, 2000 (coauthor). “Insatsu Zasshi” to sono jidai: jikkyō insatsu no kingendaishi [Printing Magazine and its era: current and modern history of printing in Japan]. Tokyo: Insatsu Gakkai Shuppanbu, 2008 (supervisory editor and commentator). Takaoka, Masao. Ōbun kumihan: kumihan no kiso to manā [Western language typesetting: basics and styles]. Tokyo: Bijutsu Shuppansha, 2010 (supervisory editor).

Teaching Takaoka also taught at an art university and technical college, instructing typography through courses on letterpress printing. Part-time lecturer, Musashino Art University Junior College of Art and Design, 1970–90. Part-time lecturer, Department of Graphic Design, Nihon Kogakuin College, 1975–90.