"Hibi was one of Masahisa Fukase's final bodies of work. Fukase photographed street cracks and fissures between 1990 and 1992, and then hand painted a set of 10 x 8" bromide prints. The series was shown in February 1992, in his solo exhibition 'Private Scenes '92' held at the Nikon Salon in Tokyo, alongside Private Scenes, Bukubuku, and Berobero. His working life came to an end four months later, when he fell down the stairs in Shinjuku Golden Gai, Tokyo, and suffered brain damage."--Colophon.

"Pictures of Belonging showcases more than one hundred objects created by Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo. These trailblazing American women of Japanese descent-part of the pre-World War II generation of artists in California-were committed to exploring art as a productive means of storytelling, but their achievements are rarely recognized in the pages of American history. The book puts the artists' works in dialogue with one another for the first time-creating new conversations on citizenship, community, and agency in the historical record during an era of exclusion for Japanese Americans in particular and Asian Americans as a whole"--

Japanese artist Emi Anrakuji follows up on her recent artist's book Anrakuji with a contribution to our One Picture Book series. In it, she displays reproductions of her one-off digital prints (made by digitally printing the extraordinary self-portraits for which she is best known) onto e hagaki (picture postcards). The book concludes with an original, signed portrait printed over a vintage postcard. Each original print is unique.--Publisher's website.

On the author's trip to Great Britain and Switzerland in 1993.

In the late 1890s, the Blue Ridge Parkway was envisioned by many as a great getaway and nature preserve. The concept materialized in the early 20th century, when John D. Rockefeller donated the first $5 million to begin purchasing land for the project. Located at the top of the great Appalachian ridges, the parkway covers 469 winding miles of mountains and meadows lined with lush wildflowers, old farms, and split-rail fences. Inspiring scenery makes for a journey rich in history and mountain culture.

This volume includes 80 full-color reproductions of Obata's pencil sketches, watercolor paintings, and day-by-day narratives woven through his correspondences.

This is a multi-author work which examines the cultural dimensions of the relations between East Asia’s two great powers, China and Japan, in a period of change and turmoil, from the late nineteenth century to the end of the Second World War. This period saw Japanese invasion of China, the occupation of China’s North-east (Manchuria) and Taiwan, and war between the two nations from 1937-1945; the scars of that war are still evident in relations between the two countries today. In their quest for modernity, the rulers and leading thinkers of China and Japan defined themselves in contradisctinction to the other, influenced both by traditional bonds of classical culture and by the influx of new Western ideas that flowed through Japan to China. The experiences of intellectual and cultural awakening in the two countries were inextricably linked, as our studies of poetry, fiction, philosophy, theatre, and popular culture demonstrate. The chapters explore this process of “transculturation” – the sharing and exchange of ideas and artistic expression – not only in Japan and China, but in the larger region which Joshua Fogel has called the “Sinosphere,” an area including Korea and parts of Southeast Asia with a shared heritage of Confucian statecraft and values underpinned by the classical Chinese language. The authors of the chapters, who include established senior academics and younger scholars, and employ a range of disciplines and methodologies, were selected by the editors for their expertise in particular aspects of this rich and complex cultural relationship. As for the editors: Richard King and Cody Poulton are scholars and translators of Chinese literature and Japanese theatre respectively, each taking a historical and comparative perspective to the study of their subject; Katsuhiko Endo is an intellectual historian dealing with both Japan and China.

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