Traditional Japanese Arts And Culture

Traditional Japanese Arts And Culture PDF Author: Stephen Addiss
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 9780824828783
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 338

Book Description
Compiled in this volume is original material on Japanese arts and culture from the prehistoric era to the Meiji Restoration (1867). These sources, including many translated here for the first time, are placed in their historical context and outfitted with brief commentaries, allowing the reader to make connections to larger concepts and values found in Japanese culture. This book contains material on the visual and literary arts, as well as primary texts on topics not easily classified in Western categories, such as the martial and culinary arts, the art of tea, and flower arranging. More than sixty color and black-and-white illustrations enrich the collection and provide further insights into Japanese artistic and cultural values. Also included are a bibliography of English-language and Japanese sources and an extensive list of suggested further readings.

The Influence of Japanese Art on Design

The Influence of Japanese Art on Design PDF Author: Hannah Sigur
Publisher: Gibbs Smith
ISBN: 1586857495
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 222

Book Description
During America's Gilded Age (dates), the country was swept by a mania for all things Japanese. It spread from coast to coast, enticed everyone from robber barons to street vendors with its allure, and touched every aspect of life from patent medicines to wallpaper. Americans of the time found in Japanese art every design language: modernism or tradition, abstraction or realism, technical virtuosity or unfettered naturalism, craft or art, romance or functionalism. The art of Japan had a huge influence on American art and design. Title compares juxtapositions of American glass, silver and metal arts, ceramics, textiles, furniture, jewelry, advertising, and packaging with a spectrum of Japanese material ranging from expensive one-of-a-kind art crafts to mass-produced ephemera. Beginning in the Aesthetic movement, this book continues through the Arts & Crafts era and ends in Frank Lloyd Wright's vision, showing the reader how that model became transformed from Japanese to American in design and concept. Hannah Sigur is an art historian, writer, and editor with eight years' residence and study in East and Southeast Asia. She has a master's degree from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and is completing a PhD in the arts of Japan. Her writings include co-authoring A Master Guide to the Art of Floral Design (Timber Press, 2002), which is listed in "The Best Books of 2002" by The Christian Science Monitor and is now in its second edition; and "The Golden Ideal: Chinese Landscape Themes in Japanese Art," in Lotus Leaves, A Master Guide to the Art of Floral Design (2001). She lives in Berkeley.

Japan Crafts Sourcebook

Japan Crafts Sourcebook PDF Author: Japan Craft Forum
Publisher: Kodansha
ISBN:
Category : Art, Japanese
Languages : en
Pages : 216

Book Description
This is the first book to present today's traditional crafts under one cover and the first and only guide to the contemporary craft centers of Japan. A monumental effort seven years in the making, the Japan Crafts Sourcebook catalogs an array of items found throughout the country and discusses their history, background, and contemporary standing. An insightful introduction by Diane Durston delves into the intricacies of Japanese craft and contemplates the future of Japan's ongoing artisan traditions. With over ninety items from all genres - textiles, ceramics, wood, bamboo, lacquer, paper, and metal - and a wealth of illustrations, the Japan Crafts Sourcebook provides the perfect introduction to this cherished but vanishing world, and will prove invaluable for artists, craftspeople, designers, researchers, and lovers of the handmade object everywhere.

Handmade in Japan

Handmade in Japan PDF Author: Gestalten
Publisher: Gestalten
ISBN: 9783899559927
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
Discover the exceptional artistry and rich traditions being kept alive by Japanese artisans in the twenty-first century. In an era where global interest in handmade, small-batch products is heightening as a response to mass production, Handmade in Japan takes a look inside the workshops of the country's artisans, revealing their endless pursuit of excellence, and what it means to dedicate one's life to the stewardship of irreplaceable cultural heritage. International readers with an appreciation for handmade processes using sustainable materials will find inspiration in the exploration of craft ecosystems, such as the harvesting of natural lacquer in Iwate. Likewise, those who admire skill and beauty will enjoy discovering the lengths these makers go to in ensuring every product is perfect.

Frank Lloyd Wright and Japan

Frank Lloyd Wright and Japan PDF Author: Kevin Nute
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 9780412574207
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 244

Book Description


The Beauty of Everyday Things

The Beauty of Everyday Things PDF Author: Soetsu Yanagi
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0241366364
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 204

Book Description
The daily lives of ordinary people are replete with objects, common things used in commonplace settings. These objects are our constant companions in life. As such, writes Soetsu Yanagi, they should be made with care and built to last, treated with respect and even affection. They should be natural and simple, sturdy and safe - the aesthetic result of wholeheartedly fulfilling utilitarian needs. They should, in short, be things of beauty. In an age of feeble and ugly machine-made things, these essays call for us to deepen and transform our relationship with the objects that surround us. Inspired by the work of the simple, humble craftsmen Yanagi encountered during his lifelong travels through Japan and Korea, they are an earnest defence of modest, honest, handcrafted things - from traditional teacups to jars to cloth and paper. Objects like these exemplify the enduring appeal of simplicity and function: the beauty of everyday things.

Sumi-e

Sumi-e PDF Author: Shozo Sato
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
ISBN: 1462916287
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 201

Book Description
In this Japanese ink painting book renowned Japanese master Shozo Sato offers his own personal teaching on the beautiful art of sumi-e painting. Sumi-e: The Art of Japanese Ink Painting provides step-by-step, photo-by-photo instructions to guide learners in the correct form, motions and techniques of Japanese sumi-e painting. Featuring gorgeous images and practical advice, it includes guided instructions for 35 different paintings. From waterfalls to bamboo, learners paint their way to understanding sumi-e--a style of painting that is characteristically Asian and has been practiced for well over 1,000 years. Although it's sometimes confused with calligraphy, as the tools used are the same, sumi-e instead tries to capture the essence of an object or scene in the fewest possible strokes. This all-in-one resource also provides a timeline of brush painting history, a glossary of terms, a guide to sources and an index--making it a tool to use and treasure, for amateurs and professionals alike. This sumi-e introduction is ideal for anyone with a love of Japanese art or the desire to learn to paint in a classic Asian style.

Making Modern Japanese-Style Painting

Making Modern Japanese-Style Painting PDF Author: Chelsea Foxwell
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022611080X
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 296

Book Description
Introduction. Nihonga and the historical inscription of the modern -- Exhibitions and the making of modern Japanese painting -- In search of images -- The painter and his audiences -- Decadence and the emergence of Nihonga style -- Naturalizing the double reading -- Transmission and the historicity of Nihonga -- Conclusion.

Mingei: Japan's Enduring Folk Arts

Mingei: Japan's Enduring Folk Arts PDF Author: Amaury Saint-Gilles
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
ISBN: 1462917364
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 265

Book Description
Explore Japanese folk art--called mingei--with this beautifully illustrated book. Mingei literally means the "arts of the people" and is a treasured expression of Japanese culture and history. This book of Japanese folk art introduces 116 exquisite and interesting Japanese pieces, describing their origins, showing how they are made and used, and relating the background of myth and folklore associated with each. Illustrated with many line drawings and color photographs, Mingei offers readers a concise and informative introduction to a rich and varied artistic tradition.

Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons

Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons PDF Author: Haruo Shirane
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231526520
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 316

Book Description
Elegant representations of nature and the four seasons populate a wide range of Japanese genres and media—from poetry and screen painting to tea ceremonies, flower arrangements, and annual observances. In Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons, Haruo Shirane shows how, when, and why this practice developed and explicates the richly encoded social, religious, and political meanings of this imagery. Refuting the belief that this tradition reflects Japan's agrarian origins and supposedly mild climate, Shirane traces the establishment of seasonal topics to the poetry composed by the urban nobility in the eighth century. After becoming highly codified and influencing visual arts in the tenth and eleventh centuries, the seasonal topics and their cultural associations evolved and spread to other genres, eventually settling in the popular culture of the early modern period. Contrasted with the elegant images of nature derived from court poetry was the agrarian view of nature based on rural life. The two landscapes began to intersect in the medieval period, creating a complex, layered web of competing associations. Shirane discusses a wide array of representations of nature and the four seasons in many genres, originating in both the urban and rural perspective: textual (poetry, chronicles, tales), cultivated (gardens, flower arrangement), material (kimonos, screens), performative (noh, festivals), and gastronomic (tea ceremony, food rituals). He reveals how this kind of "secondary nature," which flourished in Japan's urban architecture and gardens, fostered and idealized a sense of harmony with the natural world just at the moment it was disappearing. Illuminating the deeper meaning behind Japanese aesthetics and artifacts, Shirane clarifies the use of natural images and seasonal topics and the changes in their cultural associations and function across history, genre, and community over more than a millennium. In this fascinating book, the four seasons are revealed to be as much a cultural construction as a reflection of the physical world.