Japan's output of manga is massive, accounting for 40 per cent of everything published in the country annually. There has also been a boom in sales outside Japan, with the manga aesthetic spreading from comics into all areas of Western youth culture through film, computer games, advertising and design. This book presents an accessible, entertaining and highly illustrated introduction to the development and diversity of Japanese comics from 1945 to the present. The chapters explore topics such as: the career of Osamu Tezuka, creator of Astro Boy and originator of manga strip stories; girls' and women's comics; and the darker, more violent gekiga manga, featuring samurais and apocalyptic science fiction.

250 photos/illustrations

Pattern design has a long history within Japanese culture. This book presents a collection of carefully selected traditional Japanese patterns in 60 categories for use by designers and artists in their projects and personal work. An companion CD-ROM provides 250 patterns in high resolution JPEG format along with PSD format from which you can freely manipulate and modify the patterns to customize them for your own use. This is an inspirational and highly practical reference and sourcebook for anyone working in the area of visual art.

Shigeki Nakamura (Japan) began his carrier as an art director in 1964 in Japan. He established his office, cobble collaboration in 1987, which and has produced design pattern books under its own brand. He is a member of JAGDA (Japan Graphic Designers Association).

The Japanese stone garden is an art form recognized around the globe. These gardens provide tranquil settings where visitors can shed the burdens and stresses of modern existence, satisfy an age-old yearning for solitude and repose, and experience the restorative power of art and nature. For this reason the value of the Japanese stone garden today is arguably even greater than when many of them were created.

Japanese Stone Gardens provides a comprehensive introduction to the powerful mystique and dynamism of the Japanese stone garden — from their earliest use as props in animistic rituals, to their appropriation by Zen monks and priests to create settings conducive to contemplation and finally to their contemporary uses and meaning. With insightful text and abundant imagery, this book reveals the hidden order of stone gardens and in the process heightens the enthusiast's appreciation of them.

A compendium of the golden age of Japanese prints from one of the worlds foremost collections.

The dazzling variety of Japanese woodblock prints, from serene landscapes to portraits of flamboyant actors and courtesans, is captured in this captivating volume. The book is divided into four chapters: "Primitives" (the term for Japanese woodblock prints produced between approximately 1660 and 1765); Courtesans; Actors; and Landscapes. Most of the images are printed in multiple colours and range from the seventeenth century to the late nineteenth century. The artists include such masters as Hiroshige, Hokusai, and Utamaro, who are represented by lesser-known treasures as well as by some of their most celebrated series, including Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji and One Hundred Famous Views of Edo.

Beyond Kurosawa
Exploring the work of the greatest Japanese filmmakers

Until recently, the western world has viewed Japanese cinema through a very narrow prism. For years, Westerners interested in Japanese film had to content themselves with the collected works of Akira Kurosawa, a spotty sampling of films by Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasujiro Ozu, gobs of anime, and badly dubbed monster movies. Many great filmmakers like Mikio Naruse and Keisuke Kinoshita have remained unknown in the West, and Japanese musicals and comedies are hardly known outside Asia. This volume sets the record straight, illustrating an in-depth history of Japanese cinema with vivid posters and stunning photography.

The author:
Stuart Galbraith IV is the author of seven books. He also makes DVD audio commentaries and liner note essays, writes a DVD column for the English edition of The Daily Yomiuri, and reviews DVDs at DVDTalk.com. He lives in Kyoto.

The art of the Ukiyo-e reflected the artistic expression of an isolated civilisation which, when it became accessible to the West, significantly influenced a number of European artists. The three masters of Ukiyo-e, Hokusai, Utamaro and Hiroshige, are united here for the first time to create a true reference on Japanese art. The three masters rank highly among the most famous Japanese artistic productions of all time.
This new title of the Prestige of Art collection will be a reference for art students and Japanese art lovers.

The Author:

Edmond de Goncourt was a French writer belonging to the naturalist movement. He was friends with Zola, Flaubert and Daudet. From 1850, he wrote on art history with his brother. Together, they were the witnesses of the artistic life of the second half of the nineteenth century. His last will was to create a literary academy to honour the memory of this brother. The Goncourt Prize is today the most prestigious literary distinction in France.
Mikhail Uspensky was a leading art historian and curator of the Japanese art collections of the Hermitage Museum.

This richly illustrated book presents the Jeffrey Montgomery collection of Japanese folk art, one of the foremost collections of this art in the world.

Superb examples of lacquer and metalwork, basketry, textiles, furniture, masks, sculpture, paintings, toys and ceramics, organised by medium into five sections. These utilitarian objects of everyday life date from the Muromachi period (1392-1568) to the early Meiji period (1868-1912), and were crafted by hardworking artisans for farmers, fishermen, town merchants and the upper-class elite. The pieces these artisans produced reflect an honesty and respect for all things both animate and inanimate, while at the same time they served as vehicles of ritual and symbols of cultural identity.

The significant feature of all the objects in the collection is that they possess a unique and inherent quality of timeless beauty. The introduction written by Dr. Edward de Waal, a potter and a writer whose works are held in many museum collections, focuses on the history of the appreciation of Japanese Folk arts in the West. Indeed, the influence of Japanese folk art on modernist design and on the growth of the craft movement within the West has been extremely important. The book continues with extensive texts written by four highly respected Japanese art historians.

The entries are divided into five sections: ceramics, textiles, metalworks, masks, and additional objects (furniture, toys, sculptures, etc.) The book includes a chronology, a map of Japan, an index and bibliography.

MATCHIBAKO: Japanese Matchbox Art of the 20s and 30s depicts Japan’s swift transformation into an industrial empire in the early 20th century, as illustrated in the infinitesimal advertisements on matchboxes from the period. In an uncertain society and its changing leisure market, matches joined cigarettes in Western-style hotels and cafes, and in sushi bars next door. Patrons might be found in Western dress or traditional kimono, debating Marx or the latest silent film, but all saw themselves reflected in the new graphism.

Although most were anonymously designed, these tiny remainders alternately show the influence of Cubism and the Bauhaus in illustration and English type, and retain conventional wood block fonts and right-to-left Japanese text. This little book is a delightful collection of images from the other side of the globe.

Completely illustrated in color

250 photos/illustrations

Pattern design has a long history within Japanese culture. This book presents a collection of carefully selected traditional Japanese patterns in 60 categories for use by designers and artists in their projects and personal work. An companion CD-ROM provides 250 patterns in high-definition JPEG format along with PSD format from which you can freely manipulate and modify the patterns to customize them for your own use. This is an inspirational and highly practical reference and sourcebook for anyone working in the area of visual art.