Heritage of Japanese Art - Hardcover

Tanaka, Ichimatsu; Ishizawa, Masao

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0870114816 ISBN 13: 9780870114816

Publisher: Kodansha USA Inc, 1992

Synopsis

Over the past few years, familiarity outside Japan with Japanese works of art has steadily been increasing through museum exhibitions and the publication of books. Yet many books on Japanese art are too scholarly and detailed for the average reader. Thus The Heritage of Japanese Art fills the need for a book of impeccable scholarship that is also easily approached, a book that is both comprehensive and lavishly illustrated.

The text of The Heritage of Japanese Art is an abridged version of a long out-of-print classic prepared by the leading scholars of Japanese art history. In approach it is chronological, each chapter being devoted to one period and showing not only the development of the art but also social, political, and religious movements and their effect on the art of the time. The media covered include painting, sculpture, textiles, ceramics, woodblock prints (ukiyo-e), lacquerware, and metalwork. The objects illustrated in the 161 full-color plates have been selected as the finest and most representative of their period, style, and medium. In fact, the vast majority of them are classified as "National Treasures" or "Important Cultural Properties." Each color plate is accompanied by a discussion of the work and its artistic features.

With these superb illustrations and the interesting and extremely readable text, The Heritage of Japanese Art has all the qualities of a classic that will be enjoyed for many years, and provides the reader with the opportunity to possess a "mini-museum" in his or her own home.

About this title

About the Author

Masao Ishizawa. Born 1903. Graduate of the History of Art Department of the University of Tokyo. Member of the Cultural Properties Protection Deliberative Council, and former director and present consultant of the Museum Yamato Bunkakan.

Teizo Suganuma. Born 1900. Graduate of the Literature Department of Keio University, Tokyo. Former professor of Keio University and honorary director of Tokoha Art Museum in Shizuoka Prefecture.

Ichimatsu Tanaka. Born 1895. Graduate of the History of Art Department of the University of Tokyo. Director of the Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Properties.

Chisaburo Yamada. Born 1908. Graduate of the Philosophy Department of Berlin University. Former director of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo.

Yuzo Yamane. Born 1919. Graduate of the History of Art Department of the University of Tokyo. Former professor of the Faculty of Literature of the University of Tokyo.

Yoshiho Yonezawa. Born 1906. Graduate of the History of Art Department of the University of Tokyo. Professor emeritus of the University of Tokyo and president of the Musashino University of Fine Arts.

Itsuji Yoshikawa. Born 1908. Graduate of the History of Art Department of the University of Tokyo. Professor emeritus of the University of Tokyo and director of the Museum Yamato Bunkakan.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Undoubtedly the most important development in art during the early Edo period was the rise of the Sotatsu school of decorative painting which succeeded in revivifying Yamato-e, at this time all but moribund. The new form of art was the product of the combined talents of the gifted artist Hon'ami Koetsu (1558-1637) and the great painter Tawaraya Sotatsu (first half of 17th ccntury). These two distinguished men grew up during the Momoyama period and had absorbed the exuberant spirit of Momoyama decorative art. In the early Edo period they established a school based on Yamato-e, to which they added new decorative elements. The movement they founded produced some of Japan's greatest works of art (Pls. 122-26) and influenced not only painting but also lacquerware, pottery, and other branches of the applied arts throughout the Edo period. Ogata Korin (1658-1716), who succeeded Sotatsu and took over the leadership of the school, came to be the outstanding decorative painter of Edo times (Pls. 127-29). Like Koetsu, he demonstrated great versatility and was gifted in the craft of maki-e lacquerwork and handicraft design generally. Korin's younger brother Kenzan (1663-1743) was famous as a potter, but he also painted pictures of great originality and taste. A century later, Sakai Hoitsu (1761-1828), an ardent admirer of Korin's painting, continued to work in the same style and painted some exquisite masterpieces (Pl. 131).

Edition details

• Publisher: Kodansha USA Inc
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0870114816
• ISBN 13: 9780870114816
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 208