The Kisokaido route through Japan was ordained in the early 1600s by the country's then-ruler Tokugawa Ieyasu, who decreed that staging posts be installed along the length of the arduous passage between Edo (present-day Tokyo) and Kyoto. Inns, shops, and restaurants were established to provide sustenance and lodging to weary travelers. In 1835, renowned woodblock print artist Keisai Eisen was commissioned to create a series of works to chart the Kisokaido journey. After producing 24 prints, Eisen was replaced by Utagawa Hiroshige, who completed the series of 70 prints in 1838. Both Eisen and Hiroshige were master print practitioners. In The Sixty-Nine Stations along the Kisokaido, we find the artists' distinct styles as much as their shared expertise. From the busy starting post of Nihonbashi to the castle town of Iwamurata, Eisen opts for a more muted palette but excels in figuration, particularly of glamorous women, and relishes snapshots of activity along the route, from shoeing a horse to winnowing rice. Hiroshige demonstrates his mastery of landscape with grandiose and evocative scenes, whether it's the peaceful banks of the Ota River, the forbidding Wada Pass, or a moonlit ascent between Yawata and Mochizuki. Taken as a whole, The Sixty-Nine Stations collection represents not only a masterpiece of woodblock practice, including bold compositions and an experimental use of color, but also a charming tapestry of 19th-century Japan, long before the specter of industrialization. This TASCHEN XXL edition revives the series with due scale and splendor. Sourced from the only-known set of a near-complete run of the first edition of the series, this legendary publication is reproduced in optimum quality, bound in the Japanese tradition and with uncut paper. A perfect companion piece to TASCHEN's One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, it is at once a visual delight and a major artifact from the bygone era of Imperial Japan.

This survey, spanning 4000 years, traces the rich visual expression of one of the world's most ancient cultures through the varied arts of India. From the beginnings in the Indus valley, through the masterpieces of Buddhist and Hindu art, to the coming of Islam and the eclectic culture of the Mughal court, the country's artistic history is explored. The author leads the reader through the pantheon of the Hindu gods, the insights of Buddhist mysticism and the complex symbolism of miniature paintings. This revised edition brings the narrative up-to-date, exploring the contribution of 20th-century artists and incorporates a glossary and timeline.

At a time when interest in China has never been greater, this revised edition of Mary Tregear's authoritative survey of the Chinese visual arts will be welcomed by art lovers, students and travellers alike. Generously illustrated and eminently readable, it covers not only bronzes, jades, calligraphy and painting, but also Buddhist sculpture, ceramics, textiles, metalwork, lacquer, garden design and architecture. For the revised edition, all Chinese names, places and terms have been romanized to current international usage. Throughout, information has been updated in view of recent finds, and the book contains new illustrations, a revised introduction and a new final chapter on twentieth-century art. An invaluable chronology of Chinese historical periods is included, together with six maps.

This sumptuous book celebrates Eastern elegance as a decorative style and illustrates how it can be achieved in both the East and the West, from the refined craftsmanship of Thai textiles and ceramics to traditional statuary from Burma and the minimalist perfection of a Japanese apartment. Much of "In the Oriental Style" is devoted to innovative Western interiors which draw their inspiration from Oriental design and objects. In this title, a wealth of individual pieces antiques, ornamental screens, lacquerware, basketry and furniture is illustrated and described, showing the enormous variety in decoration that even the simplest objects can bring to a Western home or garden.

For hundreds of years the Bactrian camel ploughed a lonely furrow across the vast wilderness of Asia. This bizarre-looking, temperamental yet hardy creature here came into its own as the core goods vehicle, resolutely and reliably transporting to China - over huge and unforgiving distances - fine things from the West while taking treasures out of the Middle Kingdom in return. Where the chariot, wagon and other wheeled conveyances proved useless amidst the shifting desert dunes, the surefooted progress of the camel - archetypal 'ship of the Silk Road' - now reigned supreme. The Bactrian camel was a subject that appealed particularly to Chinese artists because of its association with the exotic trade to mysterious Western lands. In his lavishly illustrated volume, Angus Forsyth explores diverse jade pieces depicting this iconic beast of burden. Almost one hundred separate objects are included, many of which have not been seen in print before. At the same time the author offers the full historical background to his subject. The book will have a strong appeal to collectors and art historians alike.

Buddhism is the single common thread uniting the Asian world, from India to South-East Asia an through Central Asia to China, Korea and Japan. To guide and inspire believers, innumerable symbols and images were made, beginning in India in the third century BC. This phenomenally diverse tradition includes not only frescoes, relief carvings, colossal statues, silk embroideries and bronze ritual objects but also rock-cut shrines with a thousand Buddhas, the glorious stupas of South-East Asia and the pagodas of the far East, the massive 'mandala in stone' of Borobudur in Java and entire thirteenth-century temple complexes at Angkor in Cambodia. Robert E. Fisher concisely describes all the Buddhist schools and cultures, and explains their imagery, from Tibetan cosmic diagrams and Korean folk art to early Sri Lankan sites and Japanese Zen gardens.

Huang Xiangjian, a mid-seventeenth-century member of the Suzhou local elite, journeyed on foot to southwest China and recorded its sublime scenery in site-specific paintings. Elizabeth Kindall's innovative analysis of the visual experiences and social functions Huang conveyed through his oeuvre reveals an unrecognized tradition of site paintings, here labeled geo-narratives, that recount specific journeys and create meaning in the paintings. Kindall shows how Huang created these geo-narratives by drawing upon the Suzhou place-painting tradition, as well as the encoded experiences of southwestern sites discussed in historical gazetteers and personal travel records, and the geography of the sites themselves. Ultimately these works were intended to create personas and fulfill specific social purposes among the educated class during the Ming-Qing transition. Some of Huang's paintings of the southwest, together with his travel records, became part of a campaign to attain the socially generated title of Filial Son, whereas others served private functions. This definitive study elucidates the context for Huang Xiangjian's painting and identifies geo-narrative as a distinct landscape-painting tradition lauded for its naturalistic immediacy, experiential topography, and dramatic narratives of moral persuasion, class identification, and biographical commemoration.

Garland of Visions explores the generative relationships between artistic intelligence and tantric vision practices in the construction and circulation of visual knowledge in medieval South Asia. Shifting away from the traditional connoisseur approach, Jinah Kim instead focuses on the materiality of painting: its mediums, its visions, and especially its colors. She argues that the adoption of a special type of manuscript called pothi enabled the material translation of a private and internal experience of "seeing" into a portable device. These mobile and intimate objects then became important conveyors of many forms of knowledge-ritual, artistic, social, scientific, and religious-and spurred the spread of visual knowledge of Indic Buddhism to distant lands. By taking color as the material link between a vision and its artistic output, Garland of Visions presents a fresh approach to the history of Indian painting.

This beautifully illustrated survey examines the art and artists of the Edo period, one of the great epochs in Japanese art. Together with the imperial city of Kyoto and the port cities of Osaka and Nagasaki, the splendid capital city of Edo (now Tokyo) nurtured a magnificent tradition of painting, calligraphy, printmaking, ceramics, architecture, textile work, and lacquer. As each city created its own distinctive social, political, and economic environment, its art acquired a unique flavor and aesthetic. Author Christine Guth focuses on the urban aspects of Edo art, including discussions of many of Japan's most popular artists--Korin, Utamaro, and Hiroshige, among others--as well as those that are lesser known, and provides a fascinating look at the cities in which they worked.

With contributions from outstanding specialists in glass art and East Asian art history, this edited volume opens a cross-cultural dialogue on the hitherto little-studied medium of Chinese reverse glass painting. The first major survey of this form of East Asian art, the volume traces its long history, its local and global diffusion, and its artistic and technical characteristics. Manufactured for export to Europe and for local consumption within China, the fragile artworks studied in this volume constitute a paramount part of Chinese visual culture and attest to the intensive cultural and artistic exchange between China and the West. With contributions by Thierry Audric, Kee Il Choi Jr., Patrick Conner, Karina H. Corrigan, Elisabeth Eibner, Patricia F. Ferguson, Lihong Liu, William H. Ma, Alina Martimyanova, Christopher L. Maxwell, Rupprecht Mayer, Jessica Lee Patterson, Michaela Pejcochova, Jerome Samuel, Hans Bjarne Thomsen, Jan van Campen, Rosalien van der Poel

A behind-the-scenes history of the sixteenth-century South Indian temple hall installation in the Philadelphia Museum of Art Storied Stone weaves together memories and scholarship to illuminate the multilayered history of the sole example of historical Indian stone temple architecture publicly displayed outside the subcontinent. While visiting Madurai, Tamil Nadu, in 1913, the Philadelphian Adeline Pepper Gibson purchased more than 60 huge granite carvings. Given in 1919 to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, these architectural elements were arranged to form a temple hall (mandapam) in the museum's original building in 1920. The installation was reconfigured in 1940 in the museum's current building and reimagined in 2016. The tale that unfolds-part detective story, part museum history, part case study-explores a century of debate about exhibition, authenticity, and interpretation within the museum, brought to life by striking new photography and never-before-published archival images. Offering fresh insights into the original context and meaning of the carvings, this volume also highlights the complexities of presenting the work in, and for, the twenty-first century. Published in association with the Philadelphia Museum of Art

This latest philosophical text by John Sallis is inspired by the work of contemporary Chinese painter Cao Jun. It carries out a series of philosophical reflections on nature, art, and music by taking up Cao Jun's art and thought, with a focus on questions of the elemental. Sallis's reflections are not a matter of simply relating art works to philosophical thought, as theoretical insights and developments run throughout Cao Jun's writings and inform many of his artistic works. Sallis maintains abundant points of contact with Chinese philosophical traditions but also with Western philosophy. In these reflections on art, Sallis poses a critique of mimesis and considers the relation of painting to music. He affirms his conviction that the artist must always turn to nature, especially as reflections on the earth and sky delimit the scale and place of what is human. Full-color illustrations enhance this provocative and penetrating text.

The catalogue presents for the first time the rich Tibetan artistic heritage through the collection of Michael and Justyna Buddeberg: carpet manufacture, craftwork in metal and the manufacture of furniture. Previously neglected aspects of everyday Tibetan culture are explored and make the catalogue an essential starting point for further research. The Buddeberg collection includes masterpieces of Tibetan art in textile and metal work and presents us with hitherto disregarded asp ects of the Tibetan approach to art. Carpets for sitting on or as a riding accessory played a central role in their traditional culture but have hitherto been neglected in research, as has metal craftwork, which focused on the ornamentation of end knobs on the poles supporting the cultic paintings. The lavishly illustrated catalogue closes this gap and presents together with contributions by acknowledged specialists an in - depth overview of the fields of carpet and textile art, metalwork and furniture produc tion.

Francis H Harlow (1928-present) is a world class physicist, an expert on Pueblo Indian pottery and Southwest sea fossils, an accomplished painter and cellist. In this memoir, the retired Los Alamos scientist and scholar looks back on his life and career, including his fifty years as a theoretical physicist at one of the U.S.'s top research facilities. He considers his study of Pueblo pottery a "hobby", though it draws on archaeology, history and ethnography, as well as interactions and interviews with living and deceased potters (including Maria Martinez). This book highlights the Museum of Indian Art (Santa Fe) Harlow Pottery Collection.

In this first systematic introduction to contemporary Chinese art, Wu Hung provides an accessible, focused and much-needed narrative of the development of Chinese art across all media from the 1970s to the 2000s. From its underground genesis during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), contemporary Chinese art has become a dynamic and hugely influential force in a globalized art world where the distinctions between Eastern and Western culture are rapidly collapsing. The book is a richly illustrated and easy-to-navigate chronological survey that considers contemporary Chinese art both in the context of China's specific historical experiences and in a global arena. Wu Hung explores the emergence of avant-garde or contemporary art - as opposed to officially sanctioned art - in the public sphere after the Cultural Revolution; the mobilization by young artists and critics of a nationwide avant-garde movement in the mid-1980s; the re-emphasis on individual creativity in the late 1980s, the heightened spirit of experimentation of the 1990s; and the more recent identification of Chinese artists, such as Ai Weiwei, as global citizens who create works for an international audience.

Underground film-maker Mark Hejnar lived in Thailand for four years, during which time he relentlessly explored the far reaches of the kingdom taking thousands of photographs along the way. Hejnar's interest lay not in Thailand's bars, beaches and other tourist attractions, but in its stunning range of indigenous art, icons and architecture which lies, hidden in plain sight, just beyond the beaten path. From religious folk-paintings to infernal torture sculptures, from half-buried gods in temple cave complexes to the spectral dolls who beckon from derelict spirit houses, Hejnar has captured a revelatory world of the marvelous and the monstrous, showing how Thailand's religions, myths and art are inextricably bound together. SECRET SIAM presents over 300 of Hejnar's rich photographic images, reproduced in full size and full-colour throughout, accompanied by a series of concise explanatory texts. It stands as a unique visual introduction to one of the world's most fascinating and yet seldom explored artistic cultures.

Named after an archaeological site discovered in 1951 in Zhengzhou, China, the Erligang civilization arose in the Yellow River valley around the middle of the second millennium BCE. Shortly thereafter, its distinctive elite material culture spread to a large part of China's Central Plain, in the south reaching as far as the banks of the Yangzi River. The Erligang culture is best known for the remains of an immense walled city at Zhengzhou, a smaller site at Panlongcheng in Hubei, and a large-scale bronze industry of remarkable artistic and technological sophistication.

This richly illustrated book is the first in a western language devoted to the Erligang culture. It brings together scholars from a variety of disciplines, including art history and archaeology, to explore what is known about the culture and its spectacular bronze industry. The opening chapters introduce the history of the discovery of the culture and its most important archaeological sites. Subsequent essays address a variety of important methodological issues related to the study of Erligang, including how to define the culture, the usefulness of cross-cultural comparative study, and the difficulty of reconciling traditional Chinese historiography with archaeological discoveries. The book closes by examining the role the Erligang civilization played in the emergence of the first bronze-using societies in south China and the importance of bronze studies in the training of Chinese art historians.

The contributors are Robert Bagley, John Baines, Maggie Bickford, Rod Campbell, Li Yung-ti, Robin McNeal, Kyle Steinke, Wang Haicheng, and Zhang Changping.