Taisho Chic: Japanese Modernity, Nostalgia, And Deco

The Taisho period, loosely the first three decades of the twentieth century, was a dynamic era in Japan. On one hand, it spawned social liberalism and political radicalism; on the other, it generated the social conservatism and cultural nativism that grew into the ultra-nationalism of 1937-1945. In art, it produced an infatuation with Western modernism as well as a new exploration of traditional aesthetics. Between these dramatic polarities was a rich middle ground of cultural synthesis and symbiosis in which Western concepts of modernity and nostalgia for Japanese tradition seamlessly merged or creatively contrasted. These values are witnessed in the Art Deco style, particularly as it infused Japanese art of Taisho. Much of the debate over Japanese cultural identity centered on the appearance and social role of women. The primary focus in this volume is the nexus of tradition and modernity manifest in popular images of women, as well as in domestic furnishings and fashions made for women. In an introductory essay, historian Sharon Minichiello provides a broad context for these issues by sketching major domestic and international events and themes of the period. In his essay and catalogue entries, art historian Kendall Brown first examines how women were at the center of the sociocultural debate on Japanese modernity, then details how artists helped fashion various female types, including the modern girl, the traditional beauty, and a new type of hybrid woman. The nihonga paintings, woodblock prints, textiles, and domestic artifacts discussed and illustrated here are a broad range of objects representative of mainstream Taisho visual culture, and reconstruct the styles popular from 1915 to 1935 in a celebration of Taisho- Chic. Kendall H. Brown teaches Asian art history at California State University, Long Beach. Sharon A. Minichiello is professor of Japanese history and director of the Center for Japanese Studies at the University of HawaiÕi. The other contributors are Reiko M. Brandon, Patricia Salmon, Eriko Iijima, and Annie M. Van Assche.

Taisho Chic: Japanese Modernity, Nostalgia, and Deco

Arts & Photography

Brown, Kendall H.

Minichiello, Sharon A.

History & Criticism

Honolulu Academy Arts

Japanese gardens are found throughout the world today—their unique forms now considered a universal art form. This stunning Japanese gardening book examines the work of five leading landscape architects in North America who are exploring the extraordinary power of Japanese-style garden design to create an immersive experience promoting personal and social well-being. Master garden designers Hoichi Kurisu, Takeo Uesugi, David Slawson, Shin Abe and Marc Keane have each interpreted the style and meaning of the Japanese garden in unique ways in their innovative designs for private, commercial and public spaces. Several recent Japanese-style gardens by each designer are featured in this book with detailed descriptions and sumptuous color photos.  Hoichi Kurisu—transformative spaces for spiritual and physical equilibrium. Takeo Uesugi—bright, flowing gardens that evoke joyful living. David Slawson—evocations of native place that fuse with the surrounding landscape. Shin Abe—dynamically balanced "visual stories" that produce meaning and comfort. Marc Keane—reflections on human connections with nature through the art of gardens.Also included are essays on the designers and mini-essays by them about gardens in Japan which have most inspired their work, as well as commentaries by patrons and visitors to their North American gardens. The book focuses on recently-created gardens to suggest how the art form is currently evolving, and to understand how Japanese garden design principles and practices are being adapted to suit the needs and ways of people living and working outside Japan today.

Visionary Landscapes: Japanese Garden Design in North America, The Work of Five Contemporary Masters

Photography & Video

Tuttle+publishing

The Politics of Reclusion: Painting and Power in Momoyama Japan

Univ of Hawaii Pr

The Chinese themes of the Four Graybeards of Mt. Shang and the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove figure prominently in the art of Momoyama-period Japan (ca. 1575-1625). Kendall Brown proposes that the dense and multivalent implications of aesthetic reclusion central to these paintings made them appropriate for patrons of all classes - the military, who were presently in power, the aristocracy, who had lost power, and the Buddhist priesthood, who forsook power. These paintings, and their attendant messages, thus serve as dynamic cultural agents that elucidate the fundamental paradigms of early modern Japanese society. Unlike traditional art history studies, which emphasize the style and history of art objects, The Politics of Reclusion sets out to reconstruct the possible historical context for the interpretive reception and use of Chinese hermit themes within a specific period of Japanese art. In emphasizing the political dimension of aesthetic reclusion, it introduces into the field of Japanese art history a discussion of the politics of aesthetics that characterizes recent work in the field of Japanese literature. By embedding the paintings within the contexts of politics, philosophy, religion, and even gender, this study restores the reflexive relations between the paintings and their culture and, as such, is one of the first extensive intellectual and social histories of Japanese art in a Western language. It is one that will appeal not only to students of art but to those interested in Japanese literature, history, and philosophy.

In 1930 the Toledo Museum of Art organized a landmark exhibition of "modern Japanese prints." Featuring the work of ten artists, including Hashiguchi Goyo, Kawase Hasui, and Hiroshi Yoshida, it has stood as a watershed in the success of the shin hanga (new prints) movement. The exhibition's small, limited-edition catalogue (now long since out of print), with its invaluable descriptions and thumbnail black-and-white images, has likewise been considered a shin hanga "bible" for scholars and collectors. 
Fresh Impressions: Early Modern Japanese Prints reproduces and re-examines all 343 prints from the original 1930 exhibition catalogue. It features retranslated and updated information about each print and essays by four distinguished authors who explore the context and importance of the 1930 Toledo exhibition, the key players who brought it about, and shin hanga's continuing legacy.

Fresh Impressions: Early Modern Japanese Prints

Putney, Carolyn M.

Shuko, Koyama

Binnie, Paul

Toledo Museum of Art

The Taisho period, loosely the first three decades of the twentieth century, was a dynamic era in Japan. On one hand, it spawned social liberalism and political radicalism; on the other, it generated the social conservatism and cultural nativism that grew into the ultra-nationalism of 1937-1945.
In art, it produced an infatuation with Western modernism as well as a new exploration of traditional aesthetics. Between these dramatic polarities was a rich middle ground of cultural synthesis and symbiosis in which Western concepts of modernity and nostalgia for Japanese tradition seamlessly merged or creatively contrasted. These values are witnessed in the Art Deco style, particularly as it infused Japanese art of Taisho.
Much of the debate over Japanese cultural identity centered on the appearance and social role of women. The primary focus in this volume is the nexus of tradition and modernity manifest in popular images of women, as well as in domestic furnishings and fashions made for women.
In an introductory essay, historian Sharon Minichiello provides a broad context for these issues by sketching major domestic and international events and themes of the period. In his essay and catalogue entries, art historian Kendall Brown first examines how women were at the center of the sociocultural debate on Japanese modernity, then details how artists helped fashion various female types, including the modern girl, the traditional beauty, and a new type of hybrid woman.
The nihonga paintings, woodblock prints, textiles, and domestic artifacts discussed and illustrated here are a broad range of objects representative of mainstream Taisho visual culture, and reconstruct the styles popular from 1915 to 1935 in a celebration of Taisho- Chic.

Honolulu Academy of Arts

Book by Brown, Kendall H., Fisher Gallery (University of Southern California)

Light in Darkness: Women in Prints of Early Showa Japan, 1926-1945

Fisher Gallery (University of Southern California)

Univ of Southern California Fisher

In this ground breaking book the career and work of contemporary woodblock print artist Paul Binnie (1967-present) is presented. Binnie's complete Japanese prints are illustrated in colour and many other reference photographs are provided as well, ensuring that the reader is given an insight into his working methods and his sources of inspiration. The in-depth essay provide the context of the more than 100 prints Binnie has made to date. An indispensable book for all those interested in 20th century Japanese woodblock prints and the very newest prints being created today.

Paul Binnie - A Dialogue with the Past: The First 100 Japanese Prints

et.al.

Paul Binnie

Art Media Resources, Inc.

Miller (1895-1943), the daughter of an American diplomat, was trained in Japan in traditional painting styles and techniques. She expressed sensibilities developed under that influence in a body of work, woodblock prints in particular, that won acclaim in both Japan and the US. This catalog, published to accompany an exhibition of the same name at Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, California, surveys Miller's career, explores the motivations behind her art, and includes 100-plus illustrations of her work. Distributed by U. of Washington Press. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Between Two Worlds: The Life and Art of Lilian May Miller

Miller, Lilian

Pacific Asia Museum

Univ of Washington Pr

*Gold Medal winner in the 2014 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award for Home &amp; Garden* "Just flipping through the pages of Quiet Beauty: The Japanese Gardens of North America will instantly lower your blood pressure."—The New York Times Book Review Quiet Beauty: Japanese Gardens of North America is an extraordinary look at the most beautiful and serene gardens of the United States and Canada. Most Japanese garden books look to the gardens of Japan. Quiet Beauty explores the treasure trove of Japanese gardens located in North America. Featuring an intimate look at twenty-six gardens, with numerous stunning color photographs of each, that detail their style, history, and special functions, this book explores the ingenuity and range of Japanese landscaping. Japanese gardens have been part of North American culture for almost 150 years. Quiet Beauty is a thought-provoking look at the history of their introduction to the world of North American gardening and how this aspect of Japanese culture has taken root and flourished. Japanese gardens include:<ul>
<li> Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California</li>
<li> Nitobe Memorial Garden, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia</li>
<li> Japanese Garden, Fort Worth Botanic Garden, Texas</li>
<li> Garden of the Pine Winds, Denver Botanic Gardena, Colorado</li>
<li> Japanese Garden, Montreal Botanical Garden, Quebec</li>
<li> Tenshin'en (The Garden of the Heart of Heaven), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts</li>
<li> Roji'en (Garden of Drops of Dew), The George D. and Harriet W. Cornell Japanese Gardens, The Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, Delray Beach, Florida</li>
<li> Japanese Friendship Garden of Phoenix, Margaret T. Hance Park, Arizona</li>
<li> Garden of the Pine Wind, Garvan Woodland Garden, Hot Springs, Arkansas</li>
</ul>

Quiet Beauty: The Japanese Gardens of North America

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Brown, Kendall H.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Brown, Kendall H.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Brown, Kendall H.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Taisho Chic: Japanese Modernity, Nostalgia, and Deco

Visionary Landscapes: Japanese Garden Design in North America, The Work of Five Contemporary Masters

The Politics of Reclusion: Painting and Power in Momoyama Japan

The Politics of Reclusion: Painting and Power in Momoyama Japan

Fresh Impressions: Early Modern Japanese Prints

Taisho Chic: Japanese Modernity, Nostalgia, And Deco

Light in Darkness: Women in Prints of Early Showa Japan, 1926-1945

Paul Binnie - A Dialogue with the Past: The First 100 Japanese Prints

Between Two Worlds: The Life and Art of Lilian May Miller

Quiet Beauty: The Japanese Gardens of North America