Contemporary Japanese Prints
by: Kawakita, Michiaki

Hardcover. Tokyo, Kodansha, 1st, 1967, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 187 pages. Large format. Illustrated with full color and black & white examples of of fine contemporary prints from Japan. Dust jacket shows wear with dime sized chunk missing at top of spine and piece missing at bottom left corner of rear flap. Clean, tight copy. May require additional postage. "Contemporary Japanese Prints" is a fine, beautifully printed folio book--just the way art books should be. Written by a key art historian and critic as well as museum director, it serves as an excellent and eye-opening overview of just what the straightforward title indicates, artistic prints by Japanese artists then currently active as of 1967. Kawakita's introduction is clear and concise but properly informative, defining this art form's general characteristics and then outlining its modern history, starting with its rise in the early twentieth century. Contrary to what one might expect, these prints are almost totally unrelated to Japan's rather famous ukiyo-e prints of the early modern period, these modern "hanga" instead representing the creative vision and artistic labor of one individual artist. And well, a picture's worth a thousand words, so the bulk of the book presents a selection of 150 prints by 119 artists--47 color plates and 103 monochrome plates.