Folk Art Potters of Japan (Anthropology of Asia) - Softcover

Moeran, Brian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0700710396 ISBN 13: 9780700710393

Publisher: Routledge, 1997

Synopsis

This is a study of a group of potters living in a small community in the south of Japan, and about the problems they face in the production, marketing and aesthetic appraisal of a kind of stoneware pottery generally referred to as mingei, or folk art. It shows how different people in an art world bring to bear different sets of values as they negotiate the meaning of mingei and try to decide whether a pot is 'art', 'folk art', or mere 'craft'.
At the same time, this book is an unusual monograph in that it reaches beyond the mere study of an isolated community to trace the origins and history of 'folk art' in general. By showing how a set of aesthetic ideals originating in Britain was taken to Japan, and thence back to Europe and the United States - as a result of the activities of people like William Morris, Yanagi So etsu, Bernard Leach and Hamada Sho ji - this book rewrites the history of contemporary western ceramics.

About this title

About the Author:

Brian Moeran is Professor of Business Anthropology at the Copenhagen Business School and founding Editor of the Open Access Journal of Business Anthropology.

Review:

"Moeran provides analyses that are thorough, at times brilliant, and constantly compare the theories of Yanagi to the actual workings of the community."

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0700710396
• ISBN 13: 9780700710393
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288