Customer Reviews

How to Look At Japanese Art

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This is a great book! It touches upon all the major categories of Japanese arts, such as ceramics, Buddhist sculpture, Zen painting, calligraphy, woodblock prints and gardens, in a simple and delightful way without missing essential points. Its excellent color plates and clever comparisons enable beginners to travel easily in this new and enchanting world of arts. I especially found the "key questions" for different types of arts at the end of each chapter useful for my continuous appreciation of Japanese art as well as the visual arts in general.

I was looking for a concise, simple and clear introduction to Japanese art for a course I am to give to a group of seniors (citizens, that is, not high schoolers!) and hit upon this title. After reading this small but well illustrated booklet I congratulated myself for having hit gold on my first try. This quite inexpensive volume covers just about all aspects of Japanese art, from the Jomon period to recent times, with well-chosen examples accompanied by enlightening commentary. Each chapter ends with a list of questions one should ask oneself when looking at art under consideration. A fine manual that will surely lead its readers to pursue their study of Japanese art.

Item purchased as a gift for a nephew who loved it. I would highly recommend this book.