The first book on Japanese calligraphy from the significant Momoyama and Edo periods (1568-1868), 77 Dances examines the art of writing at a time when it was undergoing a remarkable flowering, as illustrated by over one hundred sumptuous illustrations. Everything from complex Zen conundrums to gossamer haiku poems were written with verve, energy, and creativity that display how deeply the fascination for calligraphy had penetrated into the social fabric of Japan. Examining the varied groups of calligraphers creating works for diverse audiences will show how these artistic worlds both maintained their own independence and interacted to create a rich brocade of calligraphic techniques and styles.

This text traces the progression of arts on the Japanese archipelago through periods open to foreign civilizations, and periods closed against all outside influence. The authors demonstrate how the native Shinto veneration of the forces in nature underlie the Japanese love of natural materials.

Text block is pulling away from the binding at top of spine. All pages are still attached.

This volume illustrates the art of the Japanese folding screen with 23 examples dating back from the 17th to the 19th centuries, from the collections of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Six contributors discuss the state of Japanese arts during the allied occupation after the second World War. Topics include missteps by occupation censors, caution and experimentation on the part of nine artists of the era, the preservation of cultural property, and the conflicted roles of women and

This captivating gallery offers rare glimpses of Japanese culture during the early years of the 20th century. Drawn from popular women's magazines of the Taish period, its kuchi-e (frontispiece pictures) of bijin (beauties) represent a variety of artists, from the visual poetry of famous painters to more prosaic efforts by anonymous designers. Printed in the era's latest techniques of color lithography and offset printing, these kuchi-e bijin were created for mass production, yet they echo the form and appeal of woodblock prints from earlier generations. Their fashions are new enough to be exciting but sufficiently traditional to be reassuringly familiar. Embracing noble ideals and modern reality, the kuchi-e bijin suggest both the aspirations and the mundane truths of their audience, combining the sense of fine art and the sensibilities of popular illustration.
Kendall H. Brown is Associate Professor of Asian Art History at California State University, Long Beach. His informative captions and Preface explore the images' literary content, social context, and the technologies used in their production. A valuable resource for scholars of Japanese art and period book illustration, this volume is also of tremendous interest to anyone with an eye for beauty.

UKIYO-E, the art of woodblock design and printing, enjoyed a symbiosis with the kabuki theatre almost from its inception in the late 17th century, with a significant number of images devoted to the popular theatre. These comprise kabuki-e -- dynamic frames, diptychs and triptychs recreating specific scenes from plays -- and yakusha-e -- portraits of famous actors in various roles both real and imaginary. Amongst those producing theatrical prints were some of the greatest ukiyo-e artists of the century, including Kunisada, Kuniyoshi, and finally Kunichika, who introduced dramatic new framing to the format and persisted until the very last days of the century, when prints were finally usurped by the new medium of photography. DREAM SPECTRES 2 is devoted to the art of kabuki-e and yakusha-e, and collects some of the most striking and innovative prints by these and many other artists, focusing principally on three of the Japanese theatre's most spectacular and sensational themes -- ghosts, magic, and mayhem. DREAM SPECTRES 2 is presented in large-format and full-colour throughout, and contains over 200 stunning images which vividly bring back to life the violent clashes, murders, monsters and nightmares of Japan's classical kabuki theatre at its most bizarre and exhilarating extremes. Number 15 in the best-selling Ukiyo-e Master Series.

UKIYO-E -- "images from the floating world" -- were the most popular art-form of 19th century Japan. Like modern-day manga, these prints could be mass-produced and were admired by people from all sectors of society; and as in manga, the art of ukiyo-e included significant sub-genres dealing in violence, erotica and horror. With unflinching images of weird sex, bloody carnage and grotesque, demonic ghosts and monsters, "Dream Spectres" is a powerful collection of the extremes of ukiyo-e, featuring the work of such artists as Yoshitoshi, Ekin, Kunichika, Yoshiiku, Kunisada, Hokusai, Kuniyoshi, Yoshitsuya, Hiroshige, Kyosai, and Chikanobu. "Dream Spectres" features over 170 amazing full-colour images, including the complete Eimei Nijuhasshuku ("28 Blood Atrocities") of Yoshitoshi and Yoshiiku, and ranges in content from bondage and bestiality to decapitations, demons and designs for classic irezumi (body tattoos). This is Japanese art not only at its extremes of imagination, but often at its most highly accomplished and innovative. This new, revised, enlarged and expanded edition of "Dream Spectres" is presented in large-format and full-colour throughout. The Ukiyo-e Master Series: presenting seminal collections of art by the greatest print-designers and painters of Edo-period and Meiji-period Japan.