Japanese Art Signatures: A Handbook and Practical Guide

English text; Hardcover (with dust jacket); 17.5 x 25 cm, 0.7 kg; 399 pages.; Used with signs of wear on the exterior and interior. The dust jacket shows wear marks, edge wear, scuffs and scratches, and the spine is slightly faded. Interior in good condition apart from the first two pages which are slightly glued to each other and the rear of the back cover which has a glued bookseller sticker.; Here, at last, is a comprehensive, authoritative and easy-to-use research aid for reading Japanese art signatures. Designed both for the layman and the scholar, this book presents a simplified approach, one which should enable the reader to translate successfully most of the signatures likely to be encountered, whether on paintings, woodblock prints, netsuke, lacquer, inro, swords or any other form of Japanese handicraft. In terms of its subject, its range and the abundance of related information it is unprecedented among works in this field. Its distinctive features include: A dictionary of hand-written Kaisho characters; Location of dictionary characters through: The Radical Index or the Stroke Count Index; Facsimile of over 300 artist's signatures; A selection of 300 modified, variant and debased characters; An index of over 11,000 names of artists and craftsmen, all cross referenced to the character dictionary; An index of provinces, towns and place names; A section on dates and how to read them including both the Nengo and the Cycle systems; Reproductions of date and censor seals on woodblock prints; Reproductions of publishers' trade marks and seals; Reproduction of actors' and Genji mon; Instructions on placement of signatures, how to read partly erased signatures, a step-by-step guide through signature reading, etc.…