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From Edouard Manet's portrait of naturalist writer Émile Zola sitting among his Japanese art finds to Van Gogh's meticulous copies of the Hiroshige prints he devotedly collected, 19th-century pioneers of European modernism made no secret of their love of Japanese art. In all its sensuality, freedom, and effervescence, the woodblock print is single-handedly credited with the wave of japonaiserie that first enthralled France and, later, all of Europe--but often remains misunderstood as an exotic artifact that helped inspire Western creativity.
The fact is that the Japanese woodblock print is a phenomenon of which there exists no Western equivalent. Some of the most disruptive ideas in modern art--including, as Karl Marx put it, that all that is solid melts into air--were invented in Japan in the 1700s and expressed like never before in the designs of such masters as Hokusai, Utamaro, and Hiroshige in the early 19th century.
This volume, derived from the original XXL monograph, lifts the veil on a much-loved but little-understood art form by presenting the most exceptional Japanese woodblock prints in their historical context. Ranging from the 17th-century development of decadent ukiyo-e, or pictures of the floating world, to the decline and later resurgence of prints in the early 20th century, the images collected in this edition make up an unmatched record not only of a unique genre in art history, but also of the shifting mores and cultural development of Japan.
From mystical mountains to snowy passes, samurai swordsmen to sex workers in shop windows, each piece is explored as a work of art in its own right, revealing the stories and people behind the motifs. We discover the four pillars of the woodblock print--beauties, actors, landscapes, and bird-and-flower compositions--alongside depictions of sumo wrestlers, kabuki actors, or enticing courtesans--rock stars who populated the floating world and whose fan bases fueled the frenzied production of woodblock prints. We delve into the horrifying and the obscure in prints where demons, ghosts, man-eaters, and otherworldly creatures torment the living--stunning images that continue to influence Japanese manga, film, and video games to this day. We witness how, in their incredible breadth, from everyday scenes to erotica, the martial to the mythological, these works are united by the technical mastery and infallible eye of their creators and how, with tremendous ingenuity and tongue-in-cheek wit, publishers and artists alike fought to circumvent government censorship.
As part of our 40th anniversary series, this edition compiles the finest extant impressions from museums and private collections across the globe in a lightweight, accessible format, offering extensive descriptions to guide us through this frantic period in Japanese art history.
History of Art in Japan is a fully illustrated overview of Japanese art, written by one of Japan's most distinguished art historians. This masterful account of the country's exceptional cultural heritage sheds light on how Japan has nurtured distinctive aesthetics, prominent artists, and movements that have achieved global influence and popularity.
A leading authority on Japanese art history, Tsuji Nobuo discusses works ranging from the Jōmon period to contemporary art, from earthenware figurines in 13,000 BCE to manga, anime, and modern subcultures. He explains crucial aspects of Japan's many artistic mediums and styles--including paintings, ukiyo-e, ceramics, sculpture, armor, gardens, and architecture--covering thousands of years. Drawing on newly discovered archaeological findings and the latest research, the book examines Japanese art in various contexts, including Buddhist and religious influences, aristocratic and popular aesthetics, and interactions with the world. Generously illustrated with hundreds of full-color images, maps, and figures, History of Art in Japan is an indispensable resource for all those interested in this multifaceted history, illuminating countless aspects of Japanese art for scholars and general readers alike.
Best known for woodblock prints such as The Great Wave off Kanagawa, the ninteenth-century artist Hokusai was prolific in other media. Of the three hundred or so printed books Hokusai created in his long lifetime, a huge proportion were dedicated drawing manuals, known as e-tehon. They display not only Hokusai's great proficiency as a draftsman, but also his wealth of ideas and his sense of humor.
Hokusai's Method collects fifteen volumes of Hokusai's e-tehon, featuring over eight hundred illustrations ranging from 1812 to 1848, faithfully reproducing every page. Showcasing his playful approach to drawing using songs and poems, pictures composed of letterforms (a forerunner to today's emoji), modern designs for craftsmen, and even dance moves, this volume illustrates the rich spectrum of his talents and achieves his aim to preserve everything I've learned.
Meet the artist whose majestic breaking wave sent ripples across the world. Hokusai (1760-1849) is not only one of the giants of Japanese art and a legend of the Edo period, but also significantly influenced Western modernism, whose prolific gamut of prints, illustrations, paintings, and beyond forms one of the most comprehensive oeuvres of ukiyo-e art and a benchmark of japonisme. His influence spread through Impressionism, Art Nouveau, and beyond, enrapturing the likes of Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt, and Vincent van Gogh.
Hokusai was always a man on the move. He changed domicile more than 90 and used over 30 pseudonyms. In his art, he adopted the same restlessness, covering the complete spectrum of Japanese ukiyo-e,pictures of the floating world, from single-sheet prints of landscapes and actors to erotic books. In addition, he created album prints, illustrations for verse anthologies and historical novels, and surimono, which were privately issued prints for special occasions.
Hokusai's print series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, published between c. 1830 and 1834 is the artist's most renowned work and, with its soaring peak through different seasons and from different vantage points, marked the towering summit of the Japanese landscape print. The series' Under the Wave off Kanagawa, also known simply as The Great Wave, is one of the most recognized images of Japanese art in the world.
This TASCHEN introduction spans the length and breadth of Hokusai's career with key pieces from his far-reaching portfolio. Through these meticulous, majestic works and series, we trace the variety of Hokusai's subjects, from erotic books to historical novels, and the evolution of his vivid formalism and decisive delineation of space through color and line that would go on to liberate Western art from the constraints of its one-point perspective and unleash the modernist momentum.
A delightful journey into Japanese popular culture through yokai art.
Yokai are strange, mysterious creatures that populate Japanese folklore and inspire contemporary art and entertainment, such as Pokémon and the Oscar-winning film Spirited Away. The Yokai Art Museum, which is situated on the idyllic island of Shodoshima in the Seto Inland Sea, is the only museum in Japan dedicated solely to contemporary yokai and boasts a collection of almost 1,000 artworks. Visitors are guided by the voice of one such creature as they discover the origins and history of yokai and explore the contemporary world through yokai-themed art. This fascinating, one-of-a-kind museum is reproduced in the pages of this book. It includes material written by Dr. Masanobu Kagawa, the first accredited Japanese yokai scholar and the author of many yokai-related books, original works created for this publication by yokai artist and museum director, Chubei Yagyu, and yokai tales from Shodoshima and other parts of Kagawa.
In 1814, the great Japanese artist and printmaker Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) published the first volume of his sketches: Hokusai Manga. Originally designed as a reference for his students to emulate, it surpassed all expectations and became a bestseller, eventually expanding to fifteen volumes and over four thousand images.
This three-volume edition is an extensive selection of Hokusai's sketches, which present all the themes, motifs, and techniques found in his art. Although they are not based around an ongoing narrative, the caricatures, satirical drawings, and multipanel illustrations can clearly be seen as a forerunner of manga as it is understood today.
Volume 1 explores Edo Life, the everyday world of the city that would later become Tokyo, featuring people from all walks of life at work and at play. Volume 2 is devoted to The Wonders of Nature, including animals, birds, and sh as well as landscapes, weather, and scenes of natural beauty. Finally, volume 3, Flights of Fancy, is packed with mythical creatures, supernatural beings, and all sorts of weird and wonderful imagery from the master's imagination. This collection has enchanted and inspired artists and art lovers for two centuries and is now ripe for rediscovery.
Immerse yourself in the yokai images and their mesmerizing detail showcased over more than 500 pages in this epic collection!
About the Yumoto Koichi Collection
With over 5,000 works, the Yumoto Koichi Collection is the largest yokai collection in Japan. Spanning from the early modern period to the present day, the collection includes a wide range of artistic genres from paintings and hand-painted scrolls to nishiki-e woodblock prints and handicrafts such as kimono, metalworks, folk art and toys. The donated collection is housed at the Yumoto Koichi Memorial Japan Yokai Museum (Miyoshi Mononoke Museum) in Miyoshi City, Hiroshima Prefecture, and part of the collection tours the world as part of exhibitions overseas.
Hidden deep in the heart of Tokyo, a small shop sells something hardly known to the outside world. A coveted permanent pigment infused with minerals and gemstones, this rare paint has been used for centuries by Nihonga masters and few others. Nihonga, a living tradition of Japanese painting known for its blend of naturalism and abstraction, fine, delicate lines, and ethereal beauty, is a world wrapped in mysticism, inaccessible even to most Japanese people.
For American artist Allan West, finding the permanent pigments to use for his burgeoning art career became an obsession. Against all advice, Allan moved to Japan to seek out the hidden world of Nihonga and unlock its secrets and profound beauty. His quest took him from Carnegie Mellon and the safety of his Western roots to the bustling streets of Tokyo to learn from the masters. Driven by an unwavering commitment to his passion as an artist, West was not prepared for the challenges of being a barbarian in a culture steeped in tradition and formality.
Blending culture clash, determination in the face of obstacles, and triumph over what's never been done, They Hang Me in Tokyo is the amazing true story of Japanese customs, art secrets, and a foreigner's relentless quest to belong. When West rejected modernism to study with one of the five reigning mountains of traditional Japanese painting, he took on a transformative journey of struggle and acceptance spanning continents and gaining him worldwide recognition.
They Hang Me in Tokyo is a vivid tapestry of contrasting cultures that shows the boundless creative possibilities when passion meets perseverance. Enter the mesmerizing world of Nihonga in this captivating memoir of acceptance.
In recent years, the number of ukiyo-e tattoo designs, or tattoo designs using ukiyo-e motifs, has increased, and ukiyo-e are becoming more popular among tattoo lovers.
First, Chapter 1 presents the artworks by artist, beginning with Kuniyoshi Utagawa, to introduce the beauty and design of tattoos by artists such as Toyokuni Utagawa, Yoshitoshi Tsukioka, Yoshiiku Ochiai, Kunichika Toyohara, and Yoshitora Utagawa.
In Chapter 2, tattoo designs based on ukiyo-e are presented and grouped by motif, specifically including examples such as Shinto and Buddhist deities (Fujin, Raijin...); animals (dogs, cats, wolves, lions, monkeys...); plants (peonies, cherry blossoms, chrysanthemums...); yokai monsters (Hannya, skulls, bakenekos...); caricatures (Otsu-e, Okame, Hyottoko...) and more.
This book appeals not only to lovers of traditional Japanese culture, but also to tattoo-lovers and tattoo artists, who can use it as a reference for designs.
The first commercial collection of work by Nanaco Yashiro, an illustrator who has attracted international attention for her fluid lines, vivid colors, and vintage style.
Nanaco Yashiro's illustrations feature various motifs such as a woman in a feathered robe from Japanese mythology, a large tiger reminiscent of Arabia, a man in a spacesuit, and concept art for an imaginary movie about heaven and hell that the illustrator created herself and are each drawn sometimes in delicately refined watercolor brushwork and at other times in bold strokes with acrylic gouache. While the themes and motifs may vary, all of them depict Nanaco Yashiro's signature style which is sure to continue fascinating her audience forever. This book contains nearly 120 carefully selected illustrations, including many that have been newly drawn for this book, which are grouped in different themes, such as plants, animals, beautiful women, and fairytales, allowing readers to enjoy the lovely and mysterious world of Yashiro's works. This book will not only appeal to Nanaco Yashiro's current fans but will also captivate those who are new to her beautiful, delicate, and colorful illustrations.