The Artist in Edo: Studies in the History of Art, vol. 80 (Studies in the History of Art Series)
Description
During the early modern period in Japan, peace and prosperity allowed elite and popular arts and culture to flourish in Edo (Tokyo) and Kyoto. The historic first showing outside Japan of Itō Jakuchū's thirty-scroll series titled Colorful Realm of Living Beings (ca. 1757–66) in 2012 prompted a reimagining of artists and art making in this context. These essays give attention to Jakuchū’s spectacular series as well as to works by a range of contemporary artists. Selected contributions address issues of professional roles, including copying and imitation, display and memorialization, and makers’ identities. Some explore the new form of painting, ukiyo-e, in the context of the urban society that provided its subject matter and audiences; others discuss the spectrum of amateur and professional Edo pottery and interrelationships between painting and other media. Together, they reveal the fluidity and dynamism of artists’ identities during a time of great significance in the country’s history.
Published by the National Gallery of Art, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts/Distributed by Yale University Press
Praise for The Artist in Edo: Studies in the History of Art, vol. 80 (Studies in the History of Art Series)
"This wide-ranging yet comprehensive study of the Edo period is an invaluable addition to the literature on the arts and culture of Japan."—S. C. Scott, Choice
Selected for Choice's 2019 Outstanding Academic Titles List