Japanese Emblems And Designs

Renowned for its superb invention, ingenuity, and sense of pattern, Japanese design has long been admired in the West. One specific kind of ornamentation, known as "mon, "is especially recognized for its unusually rhythmic and engrossing patterns. Originally designed to serve as family emblems or crests, "mon "have also been used in Japan as trademarks and for decorating such objects as kimonos and lacquered furniture. This volume presents 800 of these attractive, copyright-free designs, ready for use or adaptation by today's commercial artists, craftspeople, and designers. Combining stylized natural and geometric forms to produce striking images, "mon" lend themselves to a wide range of applications: textile and wallpaper design, floor coverings, jewelry, mosaics, and much more. A special feature of this book is the inclusion of a number of designs by the great artist Hokusai, selected from an extremely rare edition originally published in 1824. In addition, the collection contains figures based on written characters, geometrical pattern construction, kimonos, and other motifs. Jack Hillier, a well-known author and authority on Japanese art, has provided an informative and enlightening introduction to this exciting and useful design form. Dover (1994) republication of designs and English text from the work published by University of Toronto Press, Toronto, and Amstutz de Clivo Press, Zurich.

The motifs are organized according to broad thematic categories such as "the cosmos, heaven and earth" and "animals of the land and sea," among others, allowing for broad reading on a number of topics of interest to a wide variety of readers, including collectors of Asian art and students of Japan.".

INTRODUCTION Kamon or family crests are art motifs, which have been adopted as insignia by families and handed down through the ages. The heraldic emblems of Japan are simpler and aesthetically finer than European coats of arms. The clarity and elegance of kamon are now highly valued throughout the world as a new design or motif, and applied widely in various ways in such fields as handicraft, interior and textile designs. In this book, 4,080 traditional crests are collected. The Yin (white on a black background) of each crest is presented on the left page, and the Yang (reversed motif) on the right page. Accordingly, the total number of motifs comes to 8,160. All the designs are free of copyright, so you can use them as they are or as a source of inspiration. -Editor

The Elements of Japanese Design is a library of traditional Japanese design motifs in the form of more than 2,700 family crests ( mon) compiled and drawn by a Kyoto publisher and bookseller early in the twentieth century, and selected and interpreted by John Dower, a leading American scholar of Japan. First used for identification on the battlefield beginning in the twelfth century, mon developed into symbols of family pride and fortune and quintessential expressions of the Japanese design sensibility--especially in their economy of means, exquisite detailing, and boldness of composition. The motifs employed in these family crests are also a fascinating window into the symbolic system of traditional Japan, which drew from a rich palette of natural phenomena, plants, animals, abstract devices, and manmade objects. This book will be a source of pleasure and inspiration to anyone interested in the basic elements of Japanese design, and of valuable information to anyone wishing to know more about the remarkable culture that produced it.

Drawn from traditional Japanese family crests, this collection presents 1,160 exotic black-and-white patterns, symbols, and decorative devices. They span a tremendous variety of styles, from utter simplicity to florid majesty.

This is a fully illustrated guide to the art, craft and design of bamboo, as demonstrated by the Japanese. It demonstrates how to use inexpensive materials to create sophisticated effects in the home and garden. A list of bamboo collections, gardens and research sources is included. For centuries, bamboo has fascinated legions of craftspeople, plant lovers and devotees of the handcrafted object. And nowhere is bamboo used more elegantly and distinctly than in Japan. Its presence touches every part of daily life-art, crafts, design, literature, and food. Its beauty

Color reprint of Hokusai's masterpiece, Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji, plus the artist's later black-and-white series, One Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji. A must for all lovers of Japanese art.