Unexplored Avenues of Japanese Painting - The Hakutakuan Collection (Paperback)

The bulk of the paintings included in "Unexplored Avenues of Japanese Painting" range in date from the mid-18th century to the 1930s. A broad spectrum of artists, themes, and schools is represented, including literati painting, ukiyoe, zenga, and nihonga. The book introduces a large number of artists from the Edo period to the 20th century who have yet to appear in Western exhibitions. The intent of the presentation is to raise questions about the themes, styles, scope, and significance of little-discussed areas of Japanese painting from the last several hundred years.

This unusual bilingual book features two front covers--an English cover with English-language text following and, where the English back cover would usually be, a traditionally placed Japanese cover with the Japanese text by Yokoya Ken'ichiro. The color illustrations, each accompanied by the artist's name, title of work, and date in English and Japanese, form the center of the book. Commentary includes chief aspects of the artist's career, the meaning of the painting's theme, and stylistic interpretation.

An introductory essay by Paul Berry considers the nature of collecting Japanese art in Japan and abroad and the interrelationship between public museums and private collections. Photographs of over 220 life-size seal impressions with their readings will be extremely useful to scholars.

Paul Berry, formerly a professor of art history at the University of Washington, lives in Kyoto. Yokoya Ken-ichiro is curator of the Otsu City Museum of History.