Japan Style

Enter the world of the stylish Japanese house, where every object in sight is a work of art. Japan Style introduces 20 special residences. With more than 200 color photographs, this book showcases Japanese design in the stunning beauty of old homes and reveals how they are cared for by their owners. Traditional Japanese homes, with superbly crafted fine wood, great workmanship and seasonal interior arrangements, have an aesthetic of infinite simplicity. Unlike Japanese inns and historical buildings, the Japanese architecture featured in this book is on private property not open to public viewing. Japan Style offers a rare glimpse into the intimate world of everyday Japanese culture and fascinating insight into the traditional architecture of Japan.

An authoritative and wide-ranging visual essay on the aesthetics of Japan, now in a beautiful paperback edition. Japan Style, written by one of the world's most respected scholars of Japanese art and culture, defines what 'Japan style' is. It 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. 'Japan style' is something recognizable to everyone: a beautifully arranged flower, an elegant piece of calligraphy or a simple rock garden, but it is also something that is very difficult to define. The book is divided into three main sections. In the first one ('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 the different forms of Japanese art (literature, painting, sculpture, etc.). 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. Calza's groundbreaking and insightful text is accompanied by 150 colour images of a great variety of examples from Japanese art and culture.

Japanese Street Style by Pat Lyttle is the first book to showcase innovative and cutting-edge fashions from Tokyo, one of the strongest and fastest-growing style capitals in the world. Tapping into Japan's rich culture, its fashion scene is an exciting blend of traditional dress and innovative modernity. The book features stunning one-of-a-kind photographs of all the major fashion tribes, from Gothic Lolita and Harajuku to Dolly Kei, Ganguro, and Kigurumi to the popularity of the furry tail. Inspiring and thought-provoking, Japanese Street Style provides an unprecedented look at an enormously influential current trend in the fashion world— Galliano, Dior, Vivienne Westwood, Paul Smith, and Alexander McQueen have all looked to Tokyo for inspiration from its rich visual culture, fine textiles, and craftsmanship techniques. This first-look guide to contemporary Japanese fashion is a must-read for anyone interested in fashion, trends, and culture.

A Chicago Style Manual-type guide for anyone working on English-language publications about Japan. Primarily for nonspecialists, it also contains advice and lists of resources for translators and researchers.

The story of how Japan adopted and ultimately revived traditional American fashion Look closely at any typically "American" article of clothing these days, and you may be surprised to see a Japanese label inside. From high-end denim to oxford button-downs, Japanese designers have taken the classic American look—known as ametora, or "American traditional"—and turned it into a huge business for companies like Uniqlo, Kamakura Shirts, Evisu, and Kapital. This phenomenon is part of a long dialogue between Japanese and American fashion; in fact, many of the basic items and traditions of the modern American wardrobe are alive and well today thanks to the stewardship of Japanese consumers and fashion cognoscenti, who ritualized and preserved these American styles during periods when they were out of vogue in their native land. In Ametora, cultural historian W. David Marx traces the Japanese assimilation of American fashion over the past hundred and fifty years, showing how Japanese trendsetters and entrepreneurs mimicked, adapted, imported, and ultimately perfected American style, dramatically reshaping not only Japan's culture but also our own in the process.

JAPAN STYLE - Contemporary Japanese Ceramics. Featuring the works of Kato Takahiko, Hashimoto Machiko, and Tanoue Shinya. This exhibition features works by three contemporary Japanese ceramic artists who have drawn inspiration from not only the diverse ceramic traditions of their country, but have managed to unfold the unique story behind their own passions and values in life. It is this birth of contemporary creativity that enables the artist to draw inspiration from beauty and create powerful works of form and function. Among the 18 objects in this presentation, you will find works associated with Japan's most ancient kilns which have been producing functional stoneware vessels for daily use for nearly a millennium and for the celebrated tea ceremony for 400 years. You will discover tea cups and bowls, flower vases, serving plates, and even an owl, which combine ancient materials and techniques with new forms and styles.

With essays, this book looks at how the world of fashion has been transformed by contemporary Japanese visual culture.--[book cover].

Illustrates how to connect with and incorporate Japanese design traditions into western homes. Adept at compact living and masters of elegant simplicity, the Japanese embody the principle of doing more with less.