Book Description
This unique book by tattoo artist Takahiro Kitamura (Horitaka, a pupil of Horiyoshi III) discusses the art of the Japanese tattoo in the context of Ukiyo-e, concentrating on the parallel histories of the woodblock print and the tattoo. Through high quality illustrations it shows that the Japanese tattoo is highly reliant on and linked to the woodblock print and that it deserves a position among the other art forms. A range of typical ukiyo-e motifs in the Japanese tattoo are discussed and illustrated by the original Japanese prints, and sketches, drawings and tattoos by tattoo master Horiyoshi III. The book ends with a special essay by Don Ed Hardy.
Customer Reviews:
Japanese Art as Tattoo and Vice Versa.......2005-05-12
Never has a book demonstrated so well the relationship between Japanese wood block prints and tattoos. Despite the seeming deluge of complex images that appear in large Japanese tattoos and body suits, the elements and themes are actually not that many and are readily recognized with practice. Tattoo artists will pour over this volume and collectors (both book and tattoo) shouldn't be without it.
tops on the cultural context of the japanese tattoo.......2003-07-09
Takahiro Kitamura's "Tattoos of the Floating World" is far from a be-all and end-all guide to Japanese tattoos. However, it is for the moment without peer in providing a cultural context, and it thus adds depth to a reading of many other favorites, including Fellman's "The Japanese Tattoo," Addiss' "Japanese Ghosts and Demons," and Klompmakers' "Of Brigands and Bravery: Kuniyoshi's Heroes of the Suikoden."
In this slender volume, Kitamura's primary focus is the linkage of the woodblock printing tradition of the Edo period (1615-1868) to the development of the tattoo as art. With such a focus, afficionados of the print artists Kuniyoshi, Kunisada, and Kunichika will find many illustrations to delight them, and there are as well photographs of the current artistry being worked by tattoo masters. Adding to the value of the book are a preface written by Donald Richie and an afterword by Don Ed Hardy. The first essay is elegiac and lyrical in tone; the second provides personal insights by a Western connoisseur of the tattoo art form.
The shortcomings of "Tattoos of the Floating World" concern what is not included. The book would have benefitted greatly from having an index as well as a more generously-executed glossary. Moreover, I regret that Kitamura, who as a tattoo artist is uniquely qualified to do so, did not more systematically and fully catalogue and explain the symbolism of Japanese tattoos.
Masterful Examination of Floating World Arts.......2003-05-03
Most tattoo afficianados are aware that Japanese tattoos are steeped in history and culture. But Tattoos Of The Floating World: Ukiy-o Motifs In The Japanese tattoo explores this history and culture in a way never done before. Takahiro Kitamura's research and unique insight combine to present the reader with not only a history of the Japanese tattoo, but also with an understanding of how it came to be, how it continued to maintain its traditions through centuries of persecution and cultural metamorphosis, and how it both influenced and was influenced by the contemporary arts of early Japan.
The first half of this excellent work explores the early history of the Floating World (as pleasure districts were known as Japan's Edo period), focusing on the "triumvirate of arts": ukiyo-e (wood block prints), irezumi (tattoos), and kabuki theatre. Ukiyo-e and irezumi are so closely intertwined that tattoos of the day were referred to as horimono (carved object) in deference to the process of carving a wood block print. Kabuki was the theatre of the people and expressed not only the history and mythology of Japan, but the people's innermost desires as well. Kitamura's exploration of the ways in which these three arts intertwined demonstrates his love of the topic and inspires a similar affection in the reader.
The latter half of Tattoos Of The Floating World details many of the themes so strongly connected with Japanese Tattoo today. Sections devoted to such heroes as Fudo Myoo, Fujin and Raijin, Kumonryu Shishin, and Tennin give a basic understanding of their characters themselves and their endurance as tattoo motifs. Details are also provided on such traditional images as dragons, koi, shunga, falcons, the Kurikaraken, tigers and the phoenix.
Illustrated throughout with ukiyo-e, original sketches by Horiyoshi III, and photographs by Jai Tanju, this work is as beautiful as it is educational. The pairing of sketches next to their finished tattoos highlights the artistry involved in Japanese tattoo while the presentation of ukiyo-e prints alongside tattoos of the same characters and motifs demonstrates the cultural and historic similarities.
As a special bonus, Don Ed Hardy weighs in with an essay exploring his own discovery of Japanese tattoo. Ed Hardy is the foremost American authority on Japanese tattoo and was one of the first Westerners to write on the subject. This essay follows his discovery of Japanese tattoo and his adventures in crossing the borders (both physical and cultural) between Japanese and Western tattooing.
Book Description
A rare gem: Drama and Desire presents 69 masterpieces of Japanese ukiyo-e painting by such renowned masters as Hokusai, Utamaro and Harunobu, among others--all depicting aspects of the so-called "floating world," the licentious demimonde of Edo (modern-day Tokyo), where actors and courtesans, rich patrons and bohemians, cavorted. While woodblock prints of the floating world have long been a favorite of art lovers, the remarkable ink-and-dye paintings of the period are far less known and much less available. This volume collects key examples by some of Japan's most important artists, each conveying a singular and very moving freedom of expression. Here, we find wistful interiors of courtesans at rest, onstage panoramas of actors in their finery, explicitly erotic scenes of lovemaking and outrageous fantasies. Essays by renowned American and Japanese scholars, including Howard Hibbett and Masato Naito, set the context with discussions of Edo society and culture, the ways in which "high" and "low" arts mixed in ukiyo-e painting, and the prominent roles played by courtesans, geishas and male prostitutes in the subculture of the period. This is a milieu of passion and mystery, color and flamboyance, boldly rendered in these uncommonly exotic masterworks. Published to accompany the first major American exhibition of ukiyo-e paintings in recent years, hosted by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Customer Reviews:
A top pick .......2007-07-10
DRAMA AND DESIRE: JAPANESE PAINTINGS FROM THE FLOATING WORLD 1690-1850 blends a history of Japanese paintings and painters with a catalog of full-page color reproductions of paintings representing the best and most classic works of the period from 1690-1850. Thanks to a grant, nearly thirty scholars traveled to Boston to study over four thousand paintings, sculptures, textiles, masks and lacquer pieces, taking photos of each object and producing bilingual catalogs published to make the Museum of Fine Art's holdings available to the world art community. DRAMA AND DESIRE furthers this objective, and is a top pick for both art libraries and college-level holdings specializing in Japanese history and culture.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Book Description
A seafaring story with a twist -- the incredible voyage of a shipload of "disorderly girls" and the men who transported them, fell for them, and sold them.
This riveting work of rediscovered history tells for the first time the plight of the female convicts aboard the Lady Julian, which set sail from England in 1789 and arrived in Australia's Botany Bay a year later. The women, most of them petty criminals, were destined for New South Wales to provide its hordes of lonely men with sexual favors as well as progeny. But the story of their voyage is even more incredible, and here it is expertly told by a historian with roots in the boatbuilding business and a true love of the sea.
SiGn Rees delved into court documents and firsthand accounts to extract the stories of these women's experiences on board a ship that both held them prisoner and offered them refuge from their oppressive existence in London. At the heart of the story is the passionate relationship between Sarah Whitelam, a convict, and the ship's steward, John Nicol, whose personal journals provided much of the material for this book. Along the way, Rees brings the vibrant, bawdy world of London -- and the sights, smells, and sounds of an eighteenth-century ship -- vividly to life. In the tradition of Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea, this is a winning combination of dramatic high seas adventure and untold history.
Customer Reviews:
Great Historic Book.......2007-07-22
This was a wonderful book to read to get the facts on the Australian migration from England. I highly recommend it.
Fascinating event brought to life.......2007-05-27
This book was absolutely fascinating and Sian Rees did an exemplary job in bringing the time and events to life. Definitely worth adding to your library. On a side note, there is a 60 minute documentary now airing on "Secrets of the Dead" on PBS which tells the story of several contemporary Australian women doing research on their family histories. They discover that their multi-great-grandmothers were among those chronicled in this book. The episode, entitled "Voyage of the Courtesans" (2005), combines these women's searches with re-enactments and interviews with experts and Sian Rees herself. It is an excellent show to partner with an excellent book.
History Written To Make The Reader Feel Like They Were Really There........2007-03-23
Like most readers I was probably attracted by the title and cover of this book and I wasn't disappointed. After reading this true story its obvious that a person really doesn't want a return to the "Good Old Days." They weren't very good at all. This is how most people actually scratched their ways through life in those days. Men were hanged for minor infractions and women were often burned at the stake for the same tiny infraction. Being exiled to one of the colonies was a big improvement. However, getting to those far away colonies was dangerous and totally unpleasant from every standpoint. Those long ocean voyages on wooden sailing ships were terrible even in the best circumstances. There was nothing romantic about braving the elements on a ship where the entire vessel smelled like an open sewer all the time. There was nothing romantic about having to share your body with members of the crew. There was nothing romantic about being becalmed and suffering from starvation and all manner of shipboard illnesses. After finishing this book a person will have to catch their breath, wipe off the smelly sea water and readjust to living on land, and apprecaiting the wonderful benefits of this century. This is history as it really happened and much of it was absolutely brutal. It's an eye opening read and hard to put down until the last page is absorbed. Then the reader will want to seek out the memoir of Mariner John Nicol who provided the only first-hand record of this incredible journey. Much of this book was lifted from the published recollections he dictated to a helpful publisher when he was 60+ years old.
Great Story.......2006-08-17
Novel or not, this book should be suggested or required reading in any women's studies/history course. The description of the petty crimes for which women were convicted, and the circumstances under which they were convicted, followed by their punishment and survival mechanisms are both entertaining and thoughtprovoking. The settler mothers of Australia! I wonder how many people today could trace their lineage back to these brave women!
Australia's Pilgrim Mothers.......2005-12-02
Sian Rees has done a magnificent job of reconstructing the lives of some humble people in the late eighteenth century. The original facts relating to the love affair between John Nicol and Sarah Whitelam on their voyage to Botany Bay are scanty and unreliable but the author ekes these out with detailed research. For example, having established that their ship touched at Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, at Cape Verde and at Rio di Janeiro, she has found documents describing those places at that time, and how a British convict ship was received. She gives details of the ocean currents and winds and navigation problems involved in a sailing to Australia, of contemporary midwifery practices, and of how defecation and menstruation were managed on a ship at sea. It is true that she digresses a lot into accounts of people who may never have seen Nicol and Whitelam, but it all adds up to a vivid and convincing picture.
Incidentally I notice no Australian reviewers on this board or on the UK site. Was a separate edition published there?
Average customer rating:
- Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man
- "We, at least, acted on what we believed and did our utmost"
- worth reading
- Book about ghosts from the past and catharsis
- Hmmm
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An Artist of the Floating World
Kazuo Ishiguro
Manufacturer: Vintage
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ASIN: 0679722661
Release Date: 1989-09-19 |
Amazon.com
In An Artist of the Floating World, Kazuo Ishiguro offers readers of the English language an authentic look at postwar Japan, "a floating world" of changing cultural behaviors, shifting societal patterns and troubling questions. Ishiguro, who was born in Nagasaki in 1954 but moved to England in 1960, writes the story of Masuji Ono, a bohemian artist and purveyor of the night life who became a propagandist for Japanese imperialism during the war. But the war is over. Japan lost, Ono's wife and son have been killed, and many young people blame the imperialists for leading the country to disaster. What's left for Ono? Ishiguro's treatment of this story earned a 1986 Whitbread Prize.
Book Description
This is the story of an artist as an aging man, struggling through the wreckage of Japan's World War II experience. Ishiguro's first novel.
Customer Reviews:
Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man.......2007-09-01
This narrative of Japanese artist Ono explores the change of a nation and its culture. Ono's tale is set in post-World War II Japan, but he often reflects on the ways of life prior to the war. Living a peaceful retired life, he is engaged in marriage negotiations for his youngest daughter. Having failed to marry her off once, he is forced to evaluate his past. His role as a propaganda artist during the war has come back to haunt him in the new, progressive nation. He must learn to accept the new democratic sentiments and Americanism that the younger generation venerate (including his two adult daughters and grandson). He must put behind him his life in "the floating world," or the world of nightly pleasures he was taught to emulate during his youth.
As a young apprentice, Ono grew accustomed to painting geishas, but as he grows as an artist, so does his sense of nationalism and pride. He becomes a highly regarded teacher and a celebrated national artist. But once Japan is defeated, war criminals are sent to the gallows and other contributors to the war effort are committing suicide. Ono is forced to recognize his mistakes and to accept a modern Japan for the sake of his remaining family.
This is a poignant novel, and much like The Remains of the Day, focuses on coming to terms with the past. It is a self-evaluation life as Ono reinterprets his actions as a young man while maintaining his pride.
"We, at least, acted on what we believed and did our utmost".......2007-05-31
Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki in 1954 and moved to Britain at the age of five. He was awarded the OBE in 1995 and the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1998. "An Artist of the Floating World" is his second novel, was first published in 1986 and won that year's Whitbread Prize.
"An Artist of the Floating World" opens in October 1948, and is set in post-World War II Japan. The story is told by Masuji Ono, a retired artist and - once - a man of some influence and renown. His wife and son died during the war, though both his daughters survived - one is married, with a son, while Ono is conducting negotiations for his other's marraige. Over the course of the book, Ono looks back over his life and tries to deal with how his home city and the attitudes of the people around him are changing. His own career began on the workshop of Mister Moriyama, before he moved to the studio of Master Takeda - one who favoured painting the 'floating world', as the pleasure districts were known. Finally, Ono worked with Chishu Matsuda in producing artistic propoganda - which led to his position of influence leading up to and during the war. Now, in the post-war years, he notices how his own once great reputation has faltered and how attitudes towards him and his paintings have changed. There are many, for example, from the younger generations who hold him at least partly responsible for Japan's misguided foreign policy.These changes in attitude are being mirrored by the physical changes of the city. With the post-war rebuilding, whole districts are now becoming unrecognizable - Ono's own favourite 'pleasure district' is changing in this way. These changes in attitude and in the city lead Ono to look back over his life and try to come to terms with how he has lived it.
"An Artist of the Floating World" was an excellent book, though a little sad in places. Ono himself seems a somewhat sad at how his home city is changing - partly due to the damage caused by the war, partly in the name of 'progress'. In fact, I couldn't help feeling a little sad at the loss of Ono's 'pleasure district' myself. Ono, on the other hand, doesn't quite change enough : he acknowledges his role to a point, though doesn't show any real sorrow for how things turned out. There were one or two points I'd have liked more information on - particularly his relationship with an ex-pupil called Kuroda. I'm not too surprised, however, that Ono avoided this topic as much as possible, though. For Ono to have dwelt on that topic may have caused him to discover something about himself he didn't like.
worth reading.......2007-01-06
One of my favorite writers. This book was full of digressions so sometimes hard to know where it was going but it is worth the read. It touches on Japan history (WWII) and insights the culture and art.
Book about ghosts from the past and catharsis.......2006-08-18
Kazuo Ishiguro is definitively one of my favorite contemporary writers and this novel is surely reminding me why? "An Artist of the Floating World" is first Ishiguro's novel that I've read which is settled in Japan and it brings such a fabulous picture of so many aspects of Japan society, tradition, culture and at the end, evolution. But more than anything it brings such a perfect picture of Japanese character. Magnificent indeed!
Lessons about Japanese role in WWII in school were inferior comparing with European part in all that and therefore my knowledge about this issue was not impressive at all. I knew only general, basic things and to be honest I never thought about how one Japanese (aggressor) looks on WW? Here we "can" see how art can be used in politic purposes and then how can ones handle with guilt and errors from the past. Book is no longer in my possession and therefore I cannot write quote from dialog of two old men but it's something like this:" At least we have thought that we are doing right thing and we've done the best we could do" Yes, but aren't we all doing things because we think they're right? I don't know, maybe I cannot swallow this excuse that easy because I've heard the same sentence too many times right here in my own backyard from many sides when battlefield has become only common field once again.
The strangest thing is the fact that no matter where crime is committed the basic goal, the basic idea and therefore the ultimate excuse are universal. Unfortunately conciseness, admitting errors and self punishment; undergo catharsis is everything but universal. Instead of those we have more and more excuses and at the end the worst thing: justifying crime by another crime ... and here we go again ... But in Ishiguro's book, catharsis is so normal that the reader as well as characters is experiencing it. That positive energy of youngsters in the book is magnificent which is what impressed me the most.
How youngsters are looking into the future and build that future with such an enthusiasm. During that physical transformation of the cities much more impressive is that metal one. Oh we here have so many things to learn from Japanese.
Also cultural difference is breathtaking. Marriage custom, way of conversation between family members or student and teacher even the manner of behaving to someone who you hate is so ... well I guess: Japanese *lol*
Hmmm.......2006-07-31
Both of Ishiguro's novels set in Japan are lovely pieces, but for some reason I can't connect with the stories, including, of course, this one. It could be cultural; it could be simply that I'm not ready. I adore all his other work; as a writer myself, I study his narrative voice for its sterling quality. But this is one I would recommend with reservations. I will come back to this eventually and I would wager I will love it.
Book Description
`In summary, the book is valuable as a textbook both at the advanced undergraduate level and at the graduate level. It is also very useful for the economist who wants to be brought up-to-date on theoretical and empirical research on exchange rate behaviour.' Journal of International Economics
Book Description
Manga from the Floating World is the first full-length study in English of the kibyôshi, a genre of sophisticated pictorial fiction widely read in late-eighteenth-century Japan. By combining analysis of the socioeconomic and historical milieus in which the genre was produced and consumed with three annotated translations of works by major author-artist Santô Kyôden (1761-1816) that closely reproduce the experience of encountering the originals, Adam Kern offers a sustained close reading of the vibrant popular imagination of the mid-Edo period. The kibyôshi, Kern argues, became an influential form of political satire that seemed poised to transform the uniquely Edoesque brand of urban commoner culture into something more, perhaps even a national culture, until the shogunal government intervened.
Based on extensive research using primary sources in their original Edo editions, the volume is copiously illustrated with rare prints from Japanese archival collections. It serves as an introduction not only to the kibyôshi but also to the genre's readers and critics, narratological conventions, modes of visuality, format, and relationship to the modern Japanese comicbook (manga) and to the popular literature and wit of Edo. Filled with graphic puns and caricatures, these entertaining works will appeal to the general reader as well as to the more experienced student of Japanese cultural history.
Customer Reviews:
A good effort but not an easy read.......2007-07-12
A scholarly book on the pre-cursor of present-day Japanese manga. Hey, if it's from the Harvard East Asian Center, you can't expect a leisure reading of a Time-Life edition on the topic. A well-researched book based on numerous primary Japanese sources, it weighs almost five pounds. Many interesting woodblock prints that shed lights on the daily living of the Edo period. Almost a five stars effort - but the annotations of the three primary works are located separately from the pictorial prints, which makes it awfully difficult to go back and forth between the pictures and the annotations, especially when the book weighs as much as it does. Otherwise, a pioneer work on the subject for which Mr. Kern should be well applauded.
An excetpional art book.......2007-05-06
This is a rare and comprehensive look into the real orgins of comics in Japan. This long overdue study is magnificently illustrated and annotated with brilliant essays on the history of Kibyoshibon. Calling these proto-comics manga is a bit of a stretch, but then kibyoshibon were always a medium that invited exaggeration.
A RARE LOOK AT A UNIQUE LITERARY FORM.......2007-02-03
With this richly illustrated (some 200 images) comprehensive volume readers are introduced to unique books that flourished during Japan's Edo period - the kibyoshi. While the kibyoshi format would lead one to believe it was a children's comic book, it was in actuality "possessed of a sophisticated if entertaining content, dabbling often in social satire and occasionally in political satire."
The kibyoshi, the author states, is the earliest comicbook for an adult audience in Japan. And, its audience was, of course, mostly male , educated, often merchants and artisans. It is at times compared to the modern Japanese comicbook, manga, a comparison explored by the author.
We are all well familiar with the bromide one picture is worth a thousand words, such is certainly the case in this fascinating volume. Woodblocks are amazingly detailed, such as Fig 4.22 which refers to the competition between fire brigades known for their high ladder acrobatics. It is said that members of one of the real life brigades was so insulted by the way they were depicted that they ransacked the homes of the author and publisher.
One of this reader's favorites is the caricature of a playboy, Enjiro, only son and thus heir of the wealthy owner of the D. Bauchery Shop. Enjiro is pictured with a satisfied smile on his round face and described as being in his twenties "without ever having contracted poverty or any other disease, thank you very much." We see his kimono clad figure lying on the floor, enjoying his pipe and dreaming of sensual pursuits.
The robust humor and abundantly detailed drawings evidenced by the authors of the kibyoshi make reading this volume a happy pleasure, while the historical data so assiduously collected by the author is illuminating.
Highly recommended.
- Gail Cooke
Book Description
Fascinating study of geisha, courtesans, kabuki performers as portrayed by masters of Japanese art from 1600 to 1868.
Customer Reviews:
Beautiful prints, fascinating essays.......2000-08-09
It is difficult to find an art book that perfectly balances information and art; but Swinton has compiled a book which achieves this balance beautifully. Not only does the reader enjoy large, beautiful color prints of the floating world, but she also is presented with several entertaining and thoughtful essays that begin to demystify the world of the Japanese pleasure quarters. The essays deal with such subjects as the history of Kabuki theater, the life of geisha, and the function of the pleasure quarters in Japanese society. However, the art is not dealt with as mere illustration; the works are analyzed in terms of technique and art history, and the prints are catalogued with extreme care for the art scholar. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in art, Japanese culture, history, or women's studies.
Book Description
Discover and explore worlds containing unexpected life.
As some scientists search for life on the frozen planet of Mars, others are discovering life in unexpected places here on Earth.
Frozen Oceans follows the expeditions of polar scientists in the Arctic and Antarctic as they investigate the life found in and around the ice caps, which cover up to 13 percent of the Earth's surface.
Every year during the harsh polar winter, the surface of the ocean freezes, forming a temporary ice layer called pack ice, or sea ice. The Antarctic is the site of the greatest seasonal event on Earth. In March, the air temperatures drop to as low as -40°F, the ocean, which turns to ice at 28.7°F, starts freezing at the incredible average rate of 2.22 square miles per minute!
This is the first book to explain in non-technical terms and show with color photography the abundance of life on, in and under the ice.
Topics include:
- The nature of pack ice
- Pack ice regions of the world
- Life within a block of ice
- Microbiology inside the ice
- Mammals, birds and ice.
Scientists are continually being surprised by the abundance of life where no life was expected. For many years, ice was seen as an obstacle to exploration and a threat to life. The ice is now perceived as central to global ocean circulation as well as global climate patterns.
Frozen Oceans is a must for anyone with an interest in the polar regions, marine biology and the Earth's environment.
Customer Reviews:
Phenomenally Informative.......2005-11-03
For a book of this size (just over 200 pgs) it contains a fascinating amount of information on an incredibly interesting subject. The breadth and depth of information covered in the space of so few pages is astounding and yet the author doesn't skimp on details. Should appeal to a wide and educated audience. It's written at a level that neither speaks down to the reader nor trys to overwhelm or impress, but merely inform. Much more could be shared, but I would simply encourage the reader to purchase the book and see for themselves. Outstanding!
Average customer rating:
- a first-rate addition to any Japanese art library
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Floating World of Ukiyo-E: Shadows, Dreams and Substance
Dr. Sandy Kita ,
James Douglas Farquhar ,
Lawrence E. Marceau , and
Katherine L. Blood
Manufacturer: Harry N. Abrams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0810941694 |
Book Description
The exquisite, colorful Japanese woodblock prints that represent the art of Ukiyo-e first flourished in 17th-century Edo (now Tokyo). Today these "pictures of the floating world" are the most popular form of Japanese art. This elegant book takes a fresh look at Ukiyo-e, showcasing a never-before-published trove of Japanese prints, drawings, and books from the collection of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
Known masterpieces by such names as Hiroshige and Hokusai stand alongside rare and unusual works. Colors are exceptionally vivid, in part because the art has never been exhibited and is rarely handled. The beauty of the book will delight art lovers, while the cutting-edge scholarship and unusually comprehensive bibliography will also excite the specialist and collector.
160 illustrations in full color, 232 pages, 9 x 11"September
Customer Reviews:
a first-rate addition to any Japanese art library.......2001-11-26
Writing on Edo-period Japanese prints tends to be dominated by studies of single artists, print series by single artists, and chronological histories. Against this background, "The Floating World of Ukiyoe: Shadows, Dreams, and Substance," produced in conjunction with an exhibition, is a most welcome contribution. Here the emphasis is on showcasing a diverse and rarely seen collection--the woodblock prints and woodblock-printed books of the Library of Congress-- and on presenting expert essays that put the genre of "ukiyoe" in a broad aesthetic and social context. Added bonuses include such features as the "raking light" photograph on page 118, which illustrates the effects created by print embossing. "The Floating World" has been superbly designed by Abrams and well edited. It is worth noting too that the index has been prepared with exceptional care. Meanwhile, the bibliography--which covers 309 items and runs more than 20 pages--is a wonderful guide to woodblock-printed books in the Library of Congress: for scholars of Japanese art, culture, and publishing, this alone will justify acquisition of this book.
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- The Border of Truth: A Novel
- The Children of Húrin
- The Cricket in Times Square
- The End of Victory Culture: Cold War America and the Disillusioning of a Generation
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Books Index
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