ASA 3 1968: the Association for Study of Arts: Poetry, Music, Art by Niikuni, Seiichi, editor and Association for Study of Arts (Japan)

Tokyo: ASA (Takara Printing Co.), 1968. Octavo (20.6 × 14.7 cm). Original pictorial wrappers; 63, [1] pp. Twenty-six illustrations showing works of concrete poetry. Very good. Single issue of this rare Japanese periodical of international concrete poetry, founded by Seiichi Niikuni (1925-1977), the Japanese poetic pioneer and calligrapher. "Niikuni co-founded the Association for Study of Arts (ASA) with Fujitomi Yasuo in Tokyo in 1964 to promote experimental poetry. The ASA journal began publication in 1965, and Niikuni published most of his concrete works there after Zero-on. Featuring spatial treatments of kanji, Niikuni's concrete pieces were frequently curated for local and international concrete poetry exhibitions in the 1960s" (Elaine Wong, "Interlingual Encounter in Pierre Garnier and Niikuni Seiichi's French-Japanese Concrete Poetry"). This issue is particularly important for containing the "Tokyo Manifesto for the Spatialism" (dated February 20, 1968), in Japanese and English. Side by side, the booklet presents works by Alvaro de Sa, Yuaka Ishii, Seiichi Niikuni, Ferdinand Kriwet, Shoji Yoshizawa, L. C. Vinholes, Yasuo Fujitomi, Haroldo de Campos, Alain Arias-Mission, Claus Bremer, Pierre Garnier, Jochen Gertz, Hansjörg Mayer, Timm Ulrichs, E. A. Vigo, and others. With an essay on concrete poetry in Germany, translations and book reviews of foreign publications. In total, seven issues of ASA appeared. As of October 2019, we can only trace three incomplete sets in North America (Getty, MoMA, Northwestern).