Japan and Japonisme: The Self and the Other in Representations of Japanese Culture

Japan and Japonisme: The Self and the Other in Representations of Japanese Culture explores Japan’s engagement with and responses to Japonisme, and presents new perspectives on the history and enduring influence of Japonisme as a cultural discourse. The term "Japonisme" has come to encapsulate the West’s interests in Japanese arts and culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Japonisme contributed to Japan’s global reputation as an artistic nation, but it also produced persistent stereotypes about the Japanese, such as the image of "geisha."

This pioneering anthology also demonstrates how Japan has espoused the modern Western fascination with its arts and culture to create and promote its national cultural identity. Japan and Japonisme introduces innovative studies on Japonisme by leading experts in the field, and covers the visual arts, art criticism and exhibitions, fashion, literature, horticulture, and popular culture in France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Noriko Murai is professor of modern Japanese art history at Sophia University, Tokyo. Her publications in English include Journeys East: Isabella Stewart Gardner and Asia (2009), Inventing Asia: American Perspectives Around 1900 (2014), and Japan in the Heisei Era (1989–2019): Multidisciplinary Perspectives (2022).