BUNGUTENGOKU – A PILGRIMAGE TO THE BEST OLD STATIONERY STORES ACROSS JAPAN. VOLUME 1.
By Allister Lee
ISBN#9781069522016 106 PAGES 152mm x 128mm x 8mm FULL COLOUR PERFECT BOUND ENGLISH AND JAPANESE TEXT FIRST EDITION 2025
In the past 3 years I visited over 100 Showa Era stationery stores across Japan.
Presented within these pages are a selection of 15 of my favourite stationery store spaces, faces and finds from my travels across Japan.
Each of the 15 Stationery Store profiles feature an English and Japanese text entry page, shop exterior and interior photos, a portrait of the shop owner, and a photo of the old product that I found inside that shop.
This publication is of particular interest to creatives, stationery collectors and Showa Retro enthusiasts from Japan and all parts of the world, and has a broad appeal to anyone with a curious nature and adventurous spirit.
BUNGUTENGOKU is available for purchase on the SHOP ABC section of my website.
For WHOLESALE inquiries – please send an email introduction to allister@allisterlee.com
Nice to have a couple of T-Shirt graphic designs I developed for the brand included in this hefty tome that released at the end of April as part of their Spring 24 drop.
Hand-drawn artwork for collaborative skateboards and apparel in a contemporary illustrative character style that incorporates graphic and patterns inspired by traditional Chinese artwork and costuming.
Each detail and color layers was hand drawn with Caran D’Ache Wax Pastel then digitally scanned and edited to make the finished graphic image.
The Tiger’s Apprentice animated movie is available for streaming on February 3rd on Paramount+
Guest Artist graphics for Maharishi Year of The Dragon.
SS24 Year of The Dragon 2024 assortment is available now via Maharishi online store, Maharishi London, Maharishi New York, and selected stockists worldwide.
A collaborative capsule assortment of t-shirts and trucker hats driven by a mutual admiration of automotive culture, R/C car racing and vintage toy robots – featuring digital and hand drawn graphic artwork.
Features a selection of 23 Full Page portraits from an ongoing series of work.
I started drawing and mailing portraits to friends in the Spring of 2020 as Covid started shutting things down.
It was my way of saying HELLO to friends in a lo-fi and considered way, with hopes of brightening their day.
I rarely draw people, and I hadn’t drawn in this style or method before, so it has been nice for me to figure things out as I go.
The original portraits are created using Caran D’Ache Wax Pastel and Listo Marking Pen on Manila Scrapbook paper – with cut-out layers taped on top of wherever I messed up the drawing details.
– 28 Pages
– Tabloid Format 289MM x 380MM
– Digitally printed full colour pages on 55 GSM newsprint
Guest Artist graphics for this years capsule assortment, featuring artworks inspired by ancient Chinese paper-cutting and woodblock prints.
Great sync between garment and graphic language as featured across silkscreened and embroidered velvet Tour jackets, organic cotton fleece and jersey, cotton twill hats, Japanese Cupro Twill shirting and Original Snopants.
WHAM! was the very first Western pop act to visit and perform in China as part of the “BIG TOUR” in 1985.
This T-SHIRT! is a tribute to all the Chinese fans who attended the concerts and were able to momentarily experience the spirt, energy and freedom to be themselves during a time when self-expression and individualism was not encouraged.
BIG! respect to George Michael, Andrew Ridgely and all the members of the band, back-up singers, dancers and tour management for sharing their talents to create these impactful and historical experiences.
WUKIANG TIGER and PAPERCUT TIGER graphics are inspired by traditional Chinese Handicraft of woodblock printing and papercutting to create artwork that celebrates the Lunar New Year
Worked with Swatch to develop the 2021 Year Of The Ox Big Bold watch.
OX ROCKS 2021! is a must-have for the New Year and it comes right on time. Warmed up by the fiery black, red, and gold-colored strap, the dial represents the perfectly harmonious Ox in a Ying and Yang shape, adorned with two black crystals.
Marking the end of winter and the beginning of the spring season, the Chinese New Year is one of the most important holidays in China. Every zodiac year is defined by an animal and 2021 will be represented by the Metal Ox. The golden tones bring luck and prosperity while red symbolizes happiness, success, and good fortune.
Illustrated a series of 7 graphic artworks for Swatch x You customizable watch program.
Artwork depicts various Winter Olympics sporting events including Snowboarding, Alpine Skiing, Nordic Skiing, Hockey, Skating and Sleigh.
The online customizable interface allows you to choose your pattern, then scale, rotate and position the design on the New Gent watch model, before ordering and receiving your unique timepiece.
Animated 2-Floor wrap-around neon window installation for Vans Shanghai Flagship store at Nanjing Lu.
The world’s first Vans intelligent retail store – China’s first flagship Vans store houses retail, custom workshops and events within a 3-story immersive experience environment. Located on one of the world’s largest and busiest shopping streets on Nanjing East Road – the promenade comes alive at night and is known for it’s bright neon signage and light-based displays found along the strip.
The animated neon window installation wraps around the terraced building facade over 2-floors and depicts aspects of Vans brand, skateboard, creative and local culture thought the use of text and graphic elements.
Prepared another extended long play Q + A on the subject of Sony Sports Walkmans. Nice to splice together this little feature with audio aficionado and People’s Champ – Matt Langille.
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SPORTSMAN: Did you have a Sony Sports Walkman ? From memory can you describe it and the features it might have had ?
LANGILLE: Yes I had one. The thing I remember about it the most was that it was super chunky and heavy. I think they were fairly boxy to start and then got sleeker as time went on. I believe the version I had was water resistant – perhaps that’s why it was a little clunkier ? I really remember the ‘CLICK’ of that outer latch to seal in the cassette – the most satisfying mechanical sound and feel on any electronics I’ve ever owned ! I really want to hold one now and put a tape in, I’m sure it would be overwhelming.
I really remember the ‘CLICK’ of that outer latch to seal in the cassette – the most satisfying mechanical sound and feel on any electronics I’ve ever owned !
SPORTSMAN: Where and when did you use your Walkman the most ?
LANGILLE: Music was my number one thing besides sports, so pretty much any time I wasn’t playing basketball – I had my Walkman on. At home, definitely walking to and from school, drives with my parents, on the bus to and from basketball games. I have pretty significant hearing loss in my right ear, and I’m sure this was the beginning of that. I listened to my Walkman constantly, and loud.
SPORTSMAN: Well i’m glad your Walkman didn’t have the Mega Bass feature – otherwise you might have total hearing loss in both ears by now. Do you remember the first cassette tape you listened to ? Where did you get the cassette ? Where did you get most of your cassette tapes afterwards ?
I grew up in a tiny town in Nova Scotia, so getting tapes wasn’t easy to begin with, especially the music that I was into. We had one, maybe two music stores in the town, and at the time the rap selection was really small, and most often just the very big major label releases – pop-rap like Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer, Young MC, Tone Loc – that kind of stuff. I was a weird kid and started buying my own tapes really early on with paper route money, I can distinctly remember buying De La Soul’s 3 feet High & Rising the day it came out in ’89 and having my mind blown.
“I was a weird kid and started buying my own tapes really early on with paper route money. I can distinctly remember buying De La Soul’s 3 feet High & Rising the day it came out in ’89 and having my mind blown.“
I also remember hassling my father to death one day to drive me to the mall so I could buy the 3rd Bass Cactus album. For whatever reason he decided to park in a handicapped parking spot and got a ticket. He was furious with me and I got yelled at the entire ride back home ! Those 2 tapes were early though, but the 3 tapes I remember getting the most run on my Sony Sports Walkman were Gang Starr – Daily Operation & Leaders Of The new School – Future Without A Past. Both tapes were bought on the same day from Sam the Record Man in Halifax on a day trip with my grandfather. That was an awakening, you couldn’t get those kind of albums at the store in my hometown. Then lastly I can remember when Ice Cube’s Death Certificate came out, I was a big NWA fan like everyone else, then loved Cube’s Amerikkka’s Most Wanted, so was heavily anticipating Death Certificate. We were in Florida visiting my grandparents when it came out, and at that time it was around the whole 2 Live Crew censorship fight – a hot bed topic in the state – and you couldn’t buy an explicit album in Florida if you were under 18. My sister had befriended some older kids that were staying in the same motel complex as us at the time, and I paid one of these kids to buy that tape for me !
“My sister had befriended some older kids that were staying in the same motel complex as us at the time, and I paid one of these kids to buy that tape for me ! “
Outside of that, I just dubbed every rap tape I could get my hands on, I remember Chris Holstrom had an older brother that had all the rap shit, so I’d borrow his dubs and then tape them for myself. I distinctly remember I got one that was Easy E’s first album on side A and parts of Divine Styler’s Word Power on side B, which blew my mind ! Was like a west coast Native Tongues ! I also got heavily into Donald D through the dubs he had.
That’s also around the first time I heard DJ mixtapes, which eventually led to me getting into DJ’ing on my own. There was a rap group in town called Hip Club Groove, and the DJ – DJ Moves – dated one of my friends’ sisters’, so I’d always take whatever mixtapes he gave her and dubbed them. This was the first time I heard mixing and blending, and also the first time I heard rap songs that were made locally. These early experiences made me realize that it wasn’t a super crazy far off thing – that I could also partake in the world of rap music in some way. It’s partly what inspired me an led me to DJ’ing and further into the music world in general.
I asked Matt to fill out this cassette track listing postcard with a selection of songs that came out in the same year that his first Sony Sports Walkman – the WM-AF54 – came out.Matt is left handed and as a result – this – and all his past cassette tape liner listings from youth – always appear smudged as a result of his hand dragging through the freshly written wet ink.
You can listen to the partial playlist on Spotify here :
