Art of Japan

An exploration of the treasures of Japanese art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art reveals a wealth of fascinating works dating from prehistoric times to today

Art of Japan presents one hundred highlights of Japanese art from the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, dating from the Neolithic period to today. Among them are a temple and a teahouse, acquired in 1928, each the first of its type in an American museum. The collection is also notable for tea wares, particularly ceramics produced between the sixteenth and twenty-first centuries. The Edo and Meiji periods are especially well represented by a wide range of artworks that include calligraphy, paintings, and prints by such luminaries as Hon’ami Kōetsu (1558–1637), Ike Taiga (1723–1776), and Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839–1892). An introductory essay by Felice Fischer illuminates the formation of the museum’s extensive collection of Japanese art, which began with the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition—the event that first opened American eyes to Japanese art and culture. The naissance of the museum’s exceptional holdings of Japanese ceramics can be traced directly to the Centennial, where General Hector Tyndale acquired more than a hundred examples that he bequeathed to the fledgling museum. This collection has continued to be augmented with ceramics by current practitioners of the craft, also represented in this volume, along with works by other contemporary Japanese artists. For anyone curious about Japanese art and its relevance to the art of the world today, this book provides an engaging roadmap from earliest times to the present.