Japan Style

US: Phaidon Press Ltd, 2008. Hardcover. A copy that has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. This book explores specific achievements in Japanese art and architecture, but also offers an in-depth analysis of the whole of Japanese culture, its vision of the world and of humankind. The book is divided into three main sections. In the first, Irregular Beauty, the author delineates the different aspects of Japanese culture and draws interesting connections between art, architecture, religion, philosophy and mythology. For example, he explains the aesthetics of the tea ceremony and its relationship to Zen philosophy as well as other subjects such as the function of the void in mythology, Buddhism and the arts. The second part of the book, A Feeling of Nature, follows a chronological path from ancient times to the present explaining more specifically how to interpret different forms of Japanese art, such as literature, painting, and sculpture. The third part of the book, Art Masters, contains short monographs on Japanese masters in the history of Japanese art and culture: Zeami Moto, the creator of No theatre; Hokusai, the master of woodblock printing; Yasunai Kawabata and Mishima Yukio, the writers; and the graphic designer, Tanaka Ikko.