Read this reference (encyclopedia) article to get an overview of East Asian art.
Books on art in East Asia:
InFlux: Contemporary Art in Asia by
InFlux: Contemporary Art in Asia brings together essays by leading critics and curators to examine modern and contemporary art practice and its discourses in Asia. Covering diverse regions spanning China, India, Thailand, Iran, West Asia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, Tibet, and Cambodia, the book examines their multiple modernities and the arrival of many Asia's upon the contemporary art scene. Some centers have become celebrated in the international exhibition circuit and the art market, but there is also an Asia beyond their ambit, and the book throws light upon major and minor, established and emergent geographies of art. Asia's own internal minorities fracture any unified sense of place, and representing this diversity has become a major challenge for today's curator. What is the impact on contemporary art of state power and burgeoning economies, or the persistent stereotypes of Asian craftsmanship, exoticism, and religiosity or the new ones of terrorism and tourist paradise? The book aims to challenge some of these perceptions by viewing modern and contemporary Asian art not as a given field but as a project in flux, constantly under revision via art practice and curatorial interventions.
The Reception of Chinese Art Across Cultures by
The Reception of Chinese Art across Cultures is a collection of essays examining the ways in which Chinese art has been circulated, collected, exhibited and perceived in Japan, Europe and America from the fourteenth to the twenty-first century. Scholars and curators from East Asia, Europe and North America jointly present cutting-edge research on cultural integration and aesthetic hybridisation in relation to the collecting, display, making and interpretation of Chinese art and material culture. Stimulating examples within this volume emphasise the Western understanding of Chinese pictorial art, while addressing issues concerning the consumption of Chinese art and Chinese-inspired artistic productions from early times to the contemporary period; the roles of collector, curator, museum and auction house in shaping the taste, meaning and conception of art; and the art and cultural identity of the Chinese diaspora in a global context.This book espouses a multiplicity of aesthetic, philosophical, socio-cultural, economic and political perspectives, and encourages academics, students, art and museum practitioners to re-think their encounters with the objects, practices, people and institutions surrounding the study of Chinese art and culture in the past and the present.
Since Meiji: Perspectives on the Japanese Visual Arts, 1868-2000 by
Research outside Japan on the history and significance of the Japanese visual arts since the beginning of the Meiji period (1868) has been, with the exception of writings on modern and contemporary woodblock prints, a relatively unexplored area of inquiry. In recent years, however, the subject has begun to attract wide interest. As is evident from this volume, this period of roughly a century and a half produced an outpouring of art created in a bewildering number of genres and spanning a wide range of aims and accomplishments. Since Meiji is the first sustained effort in English to discuss in any depth a time when Japan, eager to join in the larger cultural developments in Europe and the U.S., went through a visual revolution. Indeed, this study of the visual arts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries suggests a fresh history of modern Japanese culture--one that until now has not been widely visible or thoroughly analyzed outside that country. In this extensive collection, which includes some 190 black-and-white and color reproductions, scholars from Japan, Europe, Australia, and America explore an impressive array of subjects: painting, sculpture, prints, fashion design, crafts, and gardens. The works discussed range from early Meiji attempts to create art that referenced Western styles to postwar and contemporary avant-garde experiments. There are, in addition, substantive investigations of the cultural and intellectual background that helped stimulate the creation of new and shifting art forms, including essays on the invention of a modern artistic vocabulary in the Japanese language and the history of art criticism in Japan, as well as an extensive account of the career and significance of perhaps the best-known Japanese figure concerned with the visual arts of his period, Okakura Tenshin (1862-1913), whose Book of Tea is still widely read today. Taken together, the essays in this volume allow readers to connect ideas and images, thus bringing to light larger trends in the Japanese visual arts that have made possible the vitality, range, and striking achievements created during this turbulent and lively period. Contributors: Stephen Addiss, Chiaki Ajioka, John Clark, Ellen Conant, Mikiko Hirayama, Michael Marra, Jonathan Reynolds, J. Thomas Rimer, Audrey Yoshiko Seo, Eric C. Shiner, Lawrence Smith, Shuji Tanaka, Reiko Tomii, Mayu Tsuruya, Toshio Watanabe, Gennifer Weisenfeld, Bert Winther-Tamaki, Emiko Yamanashi.
Chinese Art by
This book is an encyclopedia of Chinese classical art, giving an informative overview of all forms of Chinese art and providing the keys to understanding contemporary art in China. This book is a great way for beginners to better acquaint themselves with China, while specialists will appreciate the global perspective.
Early Chinese Texts on Painting by
For students of Chinese art and culture this anthology has proven invaluable since its initial publication in 1985. It collects important Chinese writings about painting, from the earliest examples through the fourteenth century, allowing readers to see how the art of this rich era was seen and understood in the artists' own times. Some of the texts in this treasury fall into the broad category of aesthetic theory; some describe specific techniques; some discuss the work of individual artists. Presented in accurate and readable translations, and prefaced with artistic and historical background information to the formative periods of Chinese theory and criticism. A glossary of terms and an appendix containing brief biographies of 270 artists and critics add to the usefulness of this volume.
Chinese Landscape Painting as Western Art History by
This is a provocative essay of reflections on traditional mainstream scholarship on Chinese art as done by towering figures in the field such as James Cahill and Wen Fong. James Elkins offers an engaging and accessible survey of his personal journey encountering and interpreting Chinese art through Western scholars' writings.
The Chinese Literati on Painting by
This classic work, first published in 1971, explores the transition in painting styles from the late Sung period to the art of Yuan dynasty literati. Building on the pioneering work of Oswald Siren and James Cahill, Susan Bush's investigations of painting done under the Chin dynasty confirmed the dominance of scholar-artists in the north and their gradual development of scholarly painting traditions, and a related study of Northern Sung writings showed that their theory was shaped as much by the views of their social class as by their artistic aims. Bush's perspective on Sung scholars' art and theory helps explain the emergence of literati painting as the main artistic tradition in Yuan times. Social history thus served to supplement an understanding of the evolution of artistic styles.
The Lyrical in Epic Time by
In this book, David Der-wei Wang uses the lyrical to rethink the dynamics of Chinese modernity. Although the form may seem unusual for representing China's social and political crises in the mid-twentieth century, Wang contends that national cataclysm and mass movements intensified Chinese lyricism in extraordinary ways. Wang calls attention to the form's vigor and variety at an unlikely juncture in Chinese history and the precarious consequences it brought about: betrayal, self-abjuration, suicide, and silence. Despite their divergent backgrounds and commitments, the writers, artists, and intellectuals discussed in this book all took lyricism as a way to explore selfhood in relation to solidarity, the role of the artist in history, and the potential for poetry to illuminate crisis. They experimented with poetry, fiction, film, intellectual treatise, political manifesto, painting, calligraphy, and music. Western critics, Wang shows, also used lyricism to critique their perilous, epic time. He reads Martin Heidegger, Theodor Adorno, Cleanth Brooks, and Paul de Man, among others, to complete his portrait. The Chinese case only further intensifies the permeable nature of lyrical discourse, forcing us to reengage with the dominant role of revolution and enlightenment in shaping Chinese--and global--modernity. Wang's remarkable survey reestablishes Chinese lyricism's deep roots in its own native traditions, along with Western influences, and realizes the relevance of such a lyrical calling of the past century to our time.
Images of the Canton Factories, 1760-1822 by
Hundreds of Chinese export paintings of Canton trading houses and shopping streets are in museums and private collections throughout the world, and scholars of art and history have often questioned the reliability of these historical paintings. In this illustrated volume, Paul Van Dyke and Maria Mok examine these Chinese export paintings by matching the changes in the images with new historical data collected from various archives. Many factory paintings are reliable historical records in their own right and can be dated to a single year. Dating images with such precision was not possible in the past owing to insufficient information on the scenes. The new findings in this volume provide unprecedented opportunities to re-date many art works and prove that images of the Canton factories painted on canvas by Chinese artists are far more trustworthy than what scholars have believed in the past.
Painting Nature for the Nation by
In Painting Nature for the Nation: Taki Katei and the Challenges to Sinophile Culture in Meiji Japan, Rosina Buckland offers an account of the career of the painter Taki Katei (1830-1901). Drawing on a large body of previously unpublished paintings, collaborative works and book illustrations by this highly successful, yet neglected, figure, Buckland traces how Katei transformed his art and practice based in modes derived from China in order to fulfil the needs of the modern nation-state at large-scale exhibitions and at the imperial court. She provides a rare examination of the vibrant world of Chinese-inspired culture during the 1880s, and the hostility which it faced in the following decade.
The Heavenly Court by
One of the most magnificent and enduring themes in Chinese painting history can be found depicted in Daoist temples from the local village up to the very capital, viz., the paintings of the Heavenly Court (chaoyuan tu). Surprisingly, its images have remained largely unstudied in Western scholarship. Drawing on a comparative study of four complete sets of wall paintings dating back to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries (the oldest examples), and their related images, painting criticism, stele inscriptions, and Daoist ritual manuals, the author offers the first comprehensive study of the historical development, iconography, ritual context, methods of mural design, and the personalisations made by patrons of the four Heavenly Court paintings.
Art Worlds: Artists, Images, and Audiences in Late Nineteenth-Century Shanghai by 
Early Buddhist Art of China and Central Asia by
This book, third in a series on the early Buddhist art of China and Central Asia, centers on Buddhist art from the Western Ch'in (385-431 A.D.) in eastern Kansu (northwest China), primarily from the cave temples of Ping-ling ssu and Mai-chi shan. A detailed chronological and iconographic study of sculptures and wall paintings in Cave 169 at Ping-ling ssu particularly yields a chronological framework for unlocking the difficult issues of dating early fifth century Chinese Buddhist art, and offers some new insights into textual sources in the Lotus, Hua-yen and Amitabha sutras. Further, this study introduces the iconographpy of the five Buddhas and its relation to the art of Gandhara and the famous five colossal T'an-yao caves at Y n-kang.
The Mongol Century: Visual Cultures of Yuan China, 1271-1368 by
"The Mongol Century explores the visual world of China's Yuan dynasty (1271-1368), the spectacular but short-lived regime founded by Khubilai Khan, regarded as the pre-eminent khanate of the Mongol empire. This book illuminates the Yuan era - full of conflicts and complex interactions between Mongol power and Chinese heritage - by delving into the visual history of its culture. Shane McCausland considers how Mongol governance and values imposed a new order on China's culture and how a sedentary, agrarian China posed specific challenges to the Mongols' militarist and nomadic lifestyle. He also explores how an unusual range of expectations and pressures were placed on Yuan culture: the idea that visual culture could create cohesion across a diverse yet hierarchical society, while balancing Mongol desires for novelty and display with Chinese concerns about posterity. Although in recent years exhibitions have begun to open up the inherent paradoxes of Yuan culture, this is the first study in English to adopt a fully comprehensive approach. It incorporates the full range of visual media of the East Asia region to reconsider the impact Mongol culture had in China, from urban architecture and design to tomb murals and porcelain, and from calligraphy and printed paper money to stone sculpture. A fresh and invigorating analysis, The Mongol Century explores, in fascinating detail, the visual culture of this brief but captivating era of East Asian history."
The Terra Cotta Army by
The Terra Cotta Army is one of the greatest archaeological discoveries ever made. Over seven thousand life-size figures of warriors and horses were interred in the mausoleum of the first emperor of China--and each figure was individually carved. Weaving together history and a first-hand account of his experiences in China, John Man tells the fascinating story of how and why these astonishing figures were created in the third century BC, and how they have become a symbol of China's history, culture, and society.
The Poetry of Sculpture by
A renowned sculptor from China, Professor Wu Weishan stands out in China's art arena — indeed, in the entire cultural fraternity — with his unique sculpting styles and original theoretical views. His series of creative works that feature China's historical and cultural celebrities showcase his freehand sculpting technique and his concept of the “eight major styles of Chinese sculpture”, which directly challenge the phenomenon of contemporary art steeped so heavily in values derived from Western popular art and Russian realism.This book documents the different stages of Wu Weishan's pursuits, struggles, and creations. It records his dealings with eminent figures in the science, cultural, and art arenas, such as Yang Zhenning, Ji Xianlin, Wu Guanzhong, and Xiong Bingming. His art notes, excerpts from his theoretical essays, and images of some selected sculptures are also included. From here, readers can get a glimpse of an artist's inner world during his growing years — how he devoutly approached life and art against the backdrop of contemporary society and culture.
Donors of Longmen: Faith, Politics, and Patronage in Medieval Chinese Buddhist Sculpture by
Donors of Longmen is the first work in a Western language to re-create the history of the Longmen Grottoes, one of China's great stone sculpture treasure houses. Longmen, a UNESCO World Heritage site located near the old capital of Luoyang in modern Henan Province, consists of thousands of ancient cave chapels and shrines containing Buddhist icons of all sizes that were carved into the towering limestone cliffs from the fifth to the eighth centuries. Beyond its superb sculpture, Longmen also preserves thousands of engraved dedicatory inscriptions by its donors, who included emperors and empresses, aristocrats, court eunuchs, artisans, monks, nuns, lay societies, female palace officials, male civil and military officials, and ordinary lay believers.Based on wide reading of both Asian and Western-language scholarship and careful analysis of the architecture, epigraphy, and iconography of the site,
The Lives of Chinese Objects: Buddhism, Imperialism and Display by
This is the biography of a set of rare Buddhist statues from China. Their extraordinary adventures take them from the Buddhist temples of fifteenth-century Putuo - China's most important pilgrimage island - to their seizure by a British soldier in the First Opium War in the early 1840s, and on to a starring role in the Great Exhibition of 1851. In the 1850s, they moved in and out of dealers' and antiquarian collections, arriving in 1867 at Liverpool Museum. Here they were re-conceptualized as specimens of the 'Mongolian race' and, later, as examples of Oriental art. The statues escaped the bombing of the Museum during the Second World War and lived out their existence for the next sixty years, dismembered, corroding and neglected in the stores, their histories lost and origins unknown. As the curator of Asian collections at Liverpool Museum, the author became fascinated by these bronzes, and selected them for display in the Buddhism section of the World Cultures gallery. In 2005, quite by chance, the discovery of a lithograph of the figures on prominent display in the Great Exhibition enabled the remarkable lives of these statues to be reconstructed.
Bronze Age China: Style and Material by
Style in Chinese art and archaeology encompass complex meanings that beyond studies of decorative motifs, design and traditional sense on artistic style. This anthology considers function, behavior, manufacture, usage, design, material and context are expanded definition of style. Examine style in a larger context assists in investigating the aspects of life-style, gender, social structure, labor division, and craft specialization in a society, explains the social strata, rituals, and technical traditions. Scholars of this volume come from varied backgrounds, intends to achieve an understanding of the concept of material and style of Bronze Age while current excavated data are updated everyday in this particular field.
Chinese Religious Art by
Chinese Religious Art is a broad survey of the origins and development of the various forms of artistic expression of Chinese religions. The study begins with an overview of ancient archaeology in order to identify nascent religious ideologies in various Neolithic Cultures and early Chinese historical eras including the Shang dynasty (1300-1050 BCE) and Zhou Dynasty(1000-221 BCE) up until the era of the First Emperor (221-210 BCE) Part Two treats Confucianism as a religious tradition examining its scriptures, images, temples and rituals. Adopted as the state ideology in the Han dynasty, Confucian ideas permeated society for over two thousand years. Filial piety, ethical behavior and other principles shaped the pictorial arts. Part Three considers the various schools of Daoist belief and their expression in art. The ideas of a utopian society and the pursuit of immortality characterize this religion from its earliest phase. Daoism has an elaborate pantheon and ritualistic art, as well as a secular tradition best expressed in monochrome ink painting. Part Four covers the development of Buddhist art beginning with its entry into China in the second century. Its monuments--comprised largely of cave temples carved high in the mountains along the frontiers of China and large metropolitan temples --provide evidence of its evolution including the adoption of savior cults of the Buddha of the Western Paradise, the Buddha of the Future, the rise of Ch'an (Zen) and esoteric Buddhism. In their development, these various religious traditions interacted, sharing art, architecture, iconography and rituals. By the twelfth century a stage of syncretism merged all three traditions into a popular religion. All the religions are reviving after their extirpation during the Cultural Revolution. Using historical records and artistic evidence, much of which has not been published, this study examines their individual and shared manner of worshipping the divine forces.
World Ceramics by
It is probably the oldest and most versatile human art form. For thousands of years ceramics have been cherished both for their aesthetic beauty and their practical use. Spanning the millennia, these earth-and-fire artifacts tell stories of their own, often the only remaining relics of civilizations long gone. Exquisitely illustrated with nearly 200 color photographs, World Ceramics takes readers on a journey across time and around the globe.This remarkable volume traces the history of ceramics from the sixth millenium b.c. through the ages to the 1990s. Representing civilizations--past and present--all over the world (Turkey, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Pre-Columbian Mexico, Peru, England, France, Germany, Holland, China, Japan, Korea, and the United States), ceramics from the leading museums in the United States, the British Museum in London, the Ashmolean in Oxford, and from art dealers around the globe come together in this stunning photographic collection of pots, plates, vases, and sculptures. World Ceramics will be a treasured gift for art lovers, ceramics collectors, and history buffs--and an inspiration for all potters.
Hands in Clay by
This is the only full four-color introductory ceramics text available that combines a thorough appreciation of the aesthetics of ceramic art with extensive discussions of the history of ceramics as well as techniques for working in clay.
Fired Clay in Four Porcelain Clusters by
Fired Clay in Four Porcelain Clusters examines how energy use in the ceramics-making industry has evolved as a result of technological advancements and changing social norms and ideas in environmental conservation. Three main research themes are highlighted. First, the book examines how the evolving use of energy fuels has impacted the developmental history of the ceramics-making industry, especially with regard to productive output. The second theme focuses on energy use by networks of specialists and technicians in ceramics-making artistic clusters and how ceramicist communities in the world organize themselves institutionally to maximize resource-sharing. Third, at a cognitive level, the volume studies changes in production and design, environmental thinking, energy use, and aesthetic trends among ceramicists and consumers. The four cities or towns of Arita, Hong Kong, Jingdezhen, and Yingge are the settings for this research.
The Archaeology of China by
This book explores the roles of agricultural development and advancing social complexity in the processes of state formation in China. Over a period of about 10,000 years, it follows evolutionary trajectories of society from the last Paleolithic hunting-gathering groups, through Neolithic farming villages, and on to the Bronze Age Shang dynasty in the latter half of the second millennium BC. Li Liu and Xingcan Chen demonstrate that sociopolitical evolution was multicentric and shaped by inter-polity factionalism and competition, as well as by the many material technologies introduced from other parts of the world. The book illustrates how ancient Chinese societies were transformed during this period from simple to complex, tribal to urban, and preliterate to literate.
Chinese Antiquities: An Introduction to the Art Market by
Chinese Antiquities: An Introduction to the Art Market provides an essential guide to the growing market for Chinese antiquities, encompassing all sectors of the market, from Classical Chinese paintings and calligraphy to ceramics, jade, bronze and ritual sculpture. Aimed at current and aspiring collectors, investors and galleries interested in Chinese antiquities, the book sets out to demystify the process of buying and selling in the Asian context, highlighting Asia-specific issues that market-players might encounter and making this category of art more accessible to newcomers to the market.
The Potter's Brush: the Kenzan style in Japanese ceramics by
Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743) is celebrated as Japan's first and foremost individual potter. His reputation is both a product of his own time and of the modern age: the esteem in which he was held in Japan was ignited in the West as critics, art dealers, and collectors vied for his colorfully painted and inscribed work at the beginning of the twentieth century. Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919) was the world's principal collector of Kenzan wares, acquiring artifacts ranging from original pieces by Kenzan to late nineteenth-century forgeries. This range is presented here for the first time. The story of Freer's collection uncovers the secret history of the complex relationships between makers and connoisseurs, and between individual creativity and artisanal work, relationships that often operate across centuries. Abundantly illustrated in full color, with a complete inventory of the Freer Collection, this radical survey offers new ways of looking at both the works themselves and the strategies whereby their status has been established in the art world.
Classic Stoneware of Japan by
Though Japan today has become one of the world's most industrialized, mechanized, and computerized nations, it still boasts one of the world's richest and most fascinating ceramic traditions. Two of the country's most remarkable styles of pottery are Shino and Oribe, both originating in ancient Mino Province (modern-day Gifu Prefecture) from the time of Japan's artistic "renaissance" in the late sixteenth century. Oribe ware is one of the most startling and innovative expressions not only of this period but of all Japanese pottery. In a departure from the more refined tea ceremony utensils that represent the meditative aspect of the ceremony, Oribe ware has a more earthy feel, with its layering of naturally occurring colors: a piece might be made of red and white clay, with green glaze over the white portion, and line decorations done in iron over a coat of white slip on the red part. This ware is named for Furuta Oribe, who in his time was the undisputed master of the tea ceremony and who, it is said, commissioned certain kilns to make these pots after his own designs. Likewise, the tea ceremony ware known as Shino is widely considered to have its own unparalleled kind of beauty. With its thick, white, feldspathic glaze and stylized but seemingly spontaneous decoration in iron underglaze, it has an unmistakable sense of softness and naturalness. Both Shino and Oribe are still being made today, but in many cases it is the older examples that are most striking. Classic Stoneware of Japan brings together these early great pieces with important newer work, in 150 color photographs, and outlines each ware in informative essays - written by two noted authorities - on each tradition's history and techniques. Classic Stoneware of Japan offers a comprehensive visual survey and a basic understanding of these traditions' glazes, processes, shapes and decoration. The reader comes away with a clear idea of the essence of these wares and an ability to instantly recognize either. It will be invaluable for anyone interested in pottery, design or art. Classic Stoneware of Japan is the combined edition of two earlier volumes, Shino and Oribe, originally published independently in the series Famous Ceramics of Japan. This new, combined edition is a fascinating guide to these enduring and vital art forms.
Handmade Culture by
Handmade Culture is the first comprehensive and cohesive study in any language to examine Raku, one of Japan's most famous arts and a pottery technique practiced around the world. More than a history of ceramics, this innovative work considers four centuries of cultural invention and reinvention during times of both political stasis and socioeconomic upheaval. It combines scholarly erudition with an accessible story through its lively and lucid prose and its generous illustrations. The author's own experiences as the son of a professional potter and a historian inform his unique interdisciplinary approach, manifested particularly in his sensitivity to both technical ceramic issues and theoretical historical concerns. Handmade Culture makes ample use of archaeological evidence, heirloom ceramics, tea diaries, letters, woodblock prints, and gazetteers and other publications to narrate the compelling history of Raku,
The Pilgrim Art: Cultures of Porcelain in World History by
Illuminating one thousand years of history, The Pilgrim Art explores the remarkable cultural influence of Chinese porcelain around the globe. Cobalt ore was shipped from Persia to China in the fourteenth century, where it was used to decorate porcelain for Muslims in Southeast Asia, India, Persia, and Iraq. Spanish galleons delivered porcelain to Peru and Mexico while aristocrats in Europe ordered tableware from Canton. The book tells the fascinating story of how porcelain became a vehicle for the transmission and assimilation of artistic symbols, themes, and designs across vast distances--from Japan and Java to Egypt and England. It not only illustrates how porcelain influenced local artistic traditions but also shows how it became deeply intertwined with religion, economics, politics, and social identity. Bringing together many strands of history in an engaging narrative studded with fascinating vignettes, this is a history of cross-cultural exchange focused on an exceptional commodity that illuminates the emergence of what is arguably the first genuinely global culture.
Anime and Its Roots in Early Japanese Monster Art by
Japanese anime plays a major role in modern popular visual culture and aesthetics, yet this is the first study which sets out to put today's anime in historical context by tracking the visual links between Edo- and Meiji-period painters and the post-war period animation and manga series Gegegeno Kitaro' by Mizuki Shigeru. Through an investigation of the very popular Gegegeno Kitaro series, broadcast from the 1960s to the present time, the author is able to pinpoint the visual roots of the animation characters in the context of yôkai folklore and Edo- and Meiji- period monster painting traditions. Through analysing the changing images related to the representation of monsters in the series, the book documents the changes in the perception of monsters over the last half-century, while at the same time reflecting on the importance of Mizuki's work in keeping Japan's visual traditions alive and educating new audiences about folklore by recasting yôkai imagery in modern-day settings in an innovative way. In addition, by analysing and comparing character, set, costume and mask design, plot and storyline of yôkai-themed films, the book is also the first study to shed light on the roles the representations of yôkai have been assigned in post-war Japanese cinema. This book will be of particular interest to those studying Japanese visual media, including manga and animation, as well as students and academics in the fields of Japanese Studies, Animation Studies, Art History and Graphic Design.
Japanese Mythology in Film: A Semiotic Approach to Reading Japanese Film and Anime by
A cyborg detective hunts for a malfunctioning sex doll that turns itself into a killing machine. A Heian-era Taoist slays evil spirits with magic spells from yin-yang philosophy. A young mortician carefully prepares bodies for their journey to the afterlife. A teenage girl drinks a cup of life-giving sake, not knowing its irreversible transformative power. These are scenes from the visually enticing, spiritually eclectic media of Japanese movies and anime. The narratives of courageous heroes and heroines and the myths and legends of deities and their abodes are not just recurring motifs of the cinematic fantasy world. They are pop culture's representations of sacred subtexts in Japan. Japanese Mythology in Film takes a semiotic approach to uncovering such religious and folkloric tropes and subtexts embedded in popular Japanese movies and anime. Part I introduces film semiotics with plain definitions of terminology. Through familiar cinematic examples, it emphasizes the myth-making nature of modern-day film and argues that semiotics can be used as a theoretical tool for reading film. Part II presents case studies of eight popular Japanese films as models of semiotic analysis. While discussing each film's use of common mythological motifs such as death and rebirth, its case study also unveils more covert cultural signifiers and folktale motifs, including jizo (a savior of sentient beings) and kori (bewitching foxes and raccoon dogs), hidden in the Japanese filmic text.
Japanese Animation by
Japanese Animation: East Asian Perspectives makes available for the first time to English readership a selection of viewpoints from media practitioners, designers, educators, and scholars working in the East Asian Pacific. This collection not only engages a multidisciplinary approach in understanding the subject of Japanese animation but also shows ways to research, teach, and more fully explore this multidimensional world. Presented in six sections, the translated essays cross-reference each other. The collection adopts a wide range of critical, historical, practical, and experimental approaches. This variety provides a creative and fascinating edge for both specialist and nonspecialist readers. Contributors' works share a common relevance, interest, and involvement despite their regional considerations and the different modes of analysis demonstrated. They form a composite of teaching and research ideas on Japanese animation.
Anime Explosion! by
"An excellent reference work on the subject."--Library Journal (starred review) For fans, culture watchers, and perplexed outsiders, this expanded edition offers an engaging tour of the anime megaverse, from older artistic traditions to the works of modern creators like Hayao Miyazaki, Katsuhiro Otomo, Satoshi Kon, and CLAMP. Examined are all of anime's major themes, styles, and conventions, plus the familiar tropes of giant robots, samurai, furry beasts, high school heroines, and gay/girl/fanboy love. Concluding are fifteen essays on favorite anime, includingEvangelion,Escaflowne,Sailor Moon,Patlabor, andFullmetal Alchemist. Patrick Drazen is an anime historian who lives in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois.
Fiery Cinema: The Emergence of an Affective Medium in China, 1915–1945 by
What was cinema in modern China? It was, this book tells us, a dynamic entity, not strictly tied to one media technology, one mode of operation, or one system of aesthetic code. It was, in Weihong Bao's term, an affective medium, a distinct notion of the medium as mediating environment with the power to stir passions, frame perception, and mold experience. In Fiery Cinema, Bao traces the permutations of this affective medium from the early through the mid-twentieth century, exploring its role in aesthetics, politics, and social institutions.Mapping the changing identity of cinema in China in relation to Republican-era print media, theatrical performance, radio broadcasting, television, and architecture, Bao has created an archaeology of Chinese media culture. Within this context, she grounds the question of spectatorial affect and media technology in China's experience of mechanized warfare, colonial modernity, and the shaping of the public into consumers, national citizens, and a revolutionary collective subject. Carrying on a close conversation with transnational media theory and history, she teases out the tension and affinity between vernacular, political modernist, and propagandistic articulations of mass culture in China's varied participation in modernity.Fiery Cinema advances a radical rethinking of affect and medium as a key insight into the relationship of cinema to the public sphere and the making of the masses. By centering media politics in her inquiry of the forgotten future of cinema, Bao makes a major intervention into the theory and history of media.
Nippon Modern: Japanese Cinema of the 1920s and 1930s by
'Nippon Modern' is the first intensive study of Japanese cinema in the 1920s and 1930s, a period in which the country's film industry was at its most prolific and a time when cinema played a singular role in shaping Japanese modernity.