Excerpt from A Glimpse at the Art of Japan This small volume is what its title says, - a brief look, for the reader, at the art in question. As regards the writer, however, it is the gist of ideas and facts of several years' study and experience, becoming more intense with time and reflection. His purpose is not to give, even if competent, a dry nomenclature of dates, names, varieties, and localities of manufacturers, lists of trade-marks, artists and artisans, and like data, interesting and useful in themselves, especially to collectors. To do this, besides a knowledge of Chinese and the two written languages of Japan, one must make a special study of the numberless ciphers and inscriptions, which are found on many of the better objects, to distinguish their makers or places of fabrication. A general critic has not time for this investigation; it is not necessary, either, for the author's aim, which is psychological and aesthetic, rather than realistic and statistical. He wishes to detect beauty and truth under all guises, believing that the character more than the mechanism of any art confers the highest pleasure, and is the most profitable to know. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

The impact of Japan on Western art was as immediate and almost as cataclysmic as the influence of the West on Japanese life. After Commodore Perry opened Japan's door to the outside world in 1858--ending a 200-year period of total isolation--a wealth of visual information from the superb Japanese traditions of ceramics, metalwork, architecture, printmaking, and painting reached the West and brought with it electrifying new ideas of composition, color, and design. One has only to see a celebrated painting by Monet, Degas, Whistler, or van Gogh, a print by Toulouse-Lautrec, an Art Nouveau glass vase, or a lacquered hair comb side by side with its Japanese source to see how these ideas have inspired European artists. Nor is the influence a superficial one: Japanese conventions of symbolism underlie the use of decorative motifs in European Symbolism and Art Nouveau, and the Zen idea of spontaneity is the ultimate source of both the apparently capricious shapes of Art Nouveau objects and the development of an abstract "calligraphy" in Abstract Expressionism.

A comprehensive survey of the history of Japanese woodblock prints, This works illustrated with an overview of social conditions, printing techniques,rtists, engravers, printers and details of the prints and subjects.