The Great Gatsby (Idai naru Gatsby) — F. Scott Fitzgerald. Kenkyusha 1957 First ed Trans. Nozaki Takashi.

[PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS]

• Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Translator: Nozaki Takashi (野崎孝)
• Jacket Design (装釘): Kamekura Yusaku (亀倉雄策)
• Title: 偉大なるギャツビー (Idai naru Gatsby / The Great Gatsby)
• Series: 研究社アメリカ文学選集 第一期 (Kenkyusha American Literature Series, First Series)
• Publisher: Kenkyusha (研究社出版株式会社), Tokyo
• Year Published: 1957 (Showa 32) — Second Printing, November 25, 1957 (First printing: April 25, 1957)
• Format: Hardcover with dust jacket, 18 cm, 291 pages. Includes portrait frontispiece of F. Scott Fitzgerald (age 21).
• Contents: 偉大なるギャツビー (The Great Gatsby, p.1) / バビロン再訪 (Babylon Revisited, p.187) / 金持の青年 (The Rich Boy, p.229) / 解説 (Commentary, p.281)
• Language: Japanese
• Inclusions: Dust jacket (present). No slipcase (issued without).

[OVERVIEW]

Published in April 1957 by Kenkyusha — Japan's foremost publisher of English-language scholarship and literary translation — this edition of The Great Gatsby was the first book publication of Nozaki Takashi's celebrated Japanese translation, and it sold out within months: this copy is the second printing of the same year, issued November 25, 1957. The Nozaki translation went on to become the standard Japanese text of the novel for decades — later reissued by Shincho Bunko in 1974 (retitled Karei naru Gatsby to coincide with the Robert Redford film adaptation) and again revised in 1989 as Great Gatsby. But this 1957 Kenkyusha edition is where it all began: the translation in its original form, in its original publisher's binding, in the year of its birth.

The dust jacket was designed by Kamekura Yusaku (亀倉雄策, 1915–1997) — one of the supreme figures of twentieth-century Japanese graphic design, and the man who created the iconic poster for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. His jacket for this volume — a severe, modernist composition of grey, black, white, and red geometric blocks — is a masterpiece of restraint: the visual language of the International Style applied to a novel about excess, desire, and the American Dream. To hold this book is to hold a Kamekura original.

The volume contains three works in Nozaki's translation: The Great Gatsby, Babylon Revisited, and The Rich Boy — three of Fitzgerald's finest achievements, assembled here into a curated collection of rare literary completeness. The frontispiece portrait of Fitzgerald at twenty-one adds a biographical intimacy that later editions abandoned.

[IMPORTANT NOTE FOR INTERNATIONAL BUYERS: EASY AI TRANSLATION]

While the text is printed in Japanese, you can easily read and study this historic book using modern smartphone AI tools. By taking a photo of any page with your smartphone and using free apps like Google Lens, ChatGPT, or Google Translate, the embedded AI will instantly scan and translate the text on your screen layout. Language is no longer a barrier to owning and enjoying this rare piece of literary history.

[WHY THIS VOLUME IS A PRIZED COLLECTOR'S ITEM]

1. Kamekura Yusaku Design: The dust jacket is a documented work by Kamekura Yusaku — designer of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics poster, recipient of the Mainichi Industrial Design Prize, and one of the founding figures of modern Japanese graphic design. A Kamekura-designed dust jacket on a 1957 literary edition is a collector's object of the first order, independently of the text it contains.
2. Historical & Literary Value: This is the Nozaki Takashi translation in its original 1957 Kenkyusha form — the translation that defined The Great Gatsby for Japanese readers for half a century. The inclusion of Babylon Revisited and The Rich Boy makes this a curated Fitzgerald collection of exceptional literary depth.
3. Rarity: Nearly 70 years old, in dust jacket, with all three texts intact and a documented Kamekura design. Copies in this condition are increasingly difficult to find.

[CONDITION]

Good Vintage Condition

• Dust Jacket: Retains strong graphic impact. Light wear to spine ends. No tears, no writing.
• Binding: Tight and fully intact.
• Endpapers: Natural age-toning consistent with period paper stock.
• Interior: Light toning throughout — consistent with age. No writing, no stamps, no ownership marks.
• Please carefully inspect all high-resolution listing photos to verify condition.