New Egiptian Tarot Cards
1974
Norio Karasima
Japan
Art Medium:
Description:
This was later issued in a negative version, white lines on a black background. In 1896 in France, R. Falconnier and Otto Wegener, designed a tarot deck in an ancient Egyptian style. This was enthusiastically taken up and unashamedly copied by various publishers in the USA during the first half of the 20th century. However, the creator of the Japanese New Egiptian Tarot, chose rather to create his images based on the Rider-Waite deck. The Minor arcana are entirely derived from it but his Majors indicate a familiarity with some of the Falconnier/Wegener cards, or one of its later variants. The Tower clearly appears to have been influenced by one of these earlier Western decks. The New Egiptian Tarot was reprinted in 1996 as a photonegative, reversing the white with black, but keeping the original orientation.
