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The focus of my book is on 1950s animation design in the United States, but by the end of the 1950s, the most innovative and exciting animation design was being produced overseas — primarily in Europe, but also in other countries like Japan. The design movement flourished in these countries well into the mid-1960s, whereas it was pretty much played out in the US by 1961. One of the more famous stylized cartoon characters from Japan is Uncle Torys, an advertising character created for Suntory Whiskey in 1958. Here is a WEBSITE with a few examples of Uncle Torys print advertising and a Quicktime of one of the TV commercials.

The character was created by Ryohei Yanagihara (b. 1931) who went on to become a major figure in Japanese independent animation in the early-1960s. According to the above website, in addition to creating numerous short films, Yanagihara also designed over 40 movie title sequences. Sadly, I’ve never seen any of his animated shorts or title sequences, but sure would like to. Yanagihara’s work has a strong formal graphic sensibility that owes a lot to other mid-century designers and illustrators like Saul Bass and Miroslav Sasek, but also to animation designers like Fred Crippen, Ernie Pintoff and Jimmy Murakami, who were designing very similar-looking cartoon characters at UPA around 1956 and 1957. It’s worth noting that Yanagihara was also a prolific illustrator who created many book covers and other types of print artwork, and in some ways, he seems like a godfather to some of today’s great Japanese illustrators like Toru Fukuda and Tadahiro Uesugi.

Here’s a couple more Yanagihara sites:
Ben Ettinger writes about Yanagihara’s involvement in animation
Gallery of Yanagihara’s paintings for the Mitsui O.S.K. ships

(via Will Kane)