The Art of Japanese Craft: 1875 to the Present (Philadelphia Museum of Art)

From Japan’s first forays onto the international stage of world’s fairs in the late 19th century to the dynamic creativity of the 1920 and 1930s, from the heady post–World War II period to the present day, Japanese crafts have exhibited a rich diversity of media and techniques. One of the first illustrated surveys in English of modern-era Japanese crafts––including ceramics, lacquerware, metalcraft, and wood––this elegant book, with 70 color illustrations, is an invaluable guide for the collector and scholar.

Focusing on an important collection of Japanese crafts destined for the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the text discusses the artists and ideas that shaped and defined the aesthetic of 20th-century Japan, noting that this nation―which so deeply appreciates and fosters its crafts traditions―hails its artists as “living national treasures.” The book also includes artists’ biographies and reproductions of their signatures and marks.