Japanese Woodblock Prints: Artists, Publishers and Masterworks: 1680 - 1900

This reasonably-priced book promises a great deal - both biographies of the most famous print designers, and an analysis of the different publishers to give us insight into the way prints were produced and marketed. There are certainly a lot of gorgeous illustrations, many of them prints which have not appeared elsewhere. On the other hand, it is never very clear why particular prints were chosen - and many of them have serious flaws - they are either poor impressions, are badly preserved or printed, or are badly reproduced, so they end up blurry or off-register. Many of them are mediocre designs, with obscure subjects, and they are reproduced with almost laughably poor labels. Seriously, you can get better description of prints on ebay - in many cases the series names are not given or translated, and the subject matter is not described in any detail. Besides the odd and often inexplicable selection of prints, the text is filled with grammatical errors; the author is clearly not a native English speaker (or if he is, he doesn't write like one), and the copy-editing is just shameful. I had no idea publishing standards in the fine art book market had fallen so low. More seriously, while the section of the book on publishers collects a lot of new information, it is fragmented and largely undigested - it is hard to see any consistent styles, genres, or technical qualities of prints which correspond to different publishing houses. If all the publishers are producing pretty much the same kinds of prints, then what do we learn from the analysis which is meaningful to collectors or scholars. There is certainly no social history of the publishing business here, which would put the changing practices in the context of changes in Edo's economy or social structure during the late Tokugawa and early Meiji periods. Susan Hanley's work is far more interesting and useful, even though it does not focus on Ukiyo-e.

We recently purchased some original Japanese WoodBlock prints. I wanted to know the history and story behind the prints so I ordered the book. Great info!!

I was looking for a book that would cover Japanese wood block artists, illustrate, and inform. This book covers all those bases and more. I can identify symbols of makers as well as designers. Wonderful reference.

Very good condition, and I like it! Thanks for a good book on the Japanese Arts^^

It's a handy reference work for people interested in collecting Japanese woodblock prints. The illustrations are excellent and the discussion of the artists is quite good given the enormous amount of material the book covers.

I use it for inspiration in my own art activities

To read

Overall the book was a disappointment. It deals mostly with actors and theatrical scenes. Very little attention is given to landscapes or scenes of daily life, even when an artist is famous for such scenes. Actor prints are interesting to a point, but it seems an intentional effort was made to ignore far more interesting subjects. This may be owing to the fact that the author's graduate area of specialization, as stated on the dust-jacket was, "Actor Prints".

This book is very well illustrated, with excellent colour and good size reproductions of selected prints. The biographies of various designers supply a good deal of factual information in fairly brief sections. Unusually, publishers of prints at last receive their due in the latter part of the book, with their own personal biographies. A valuable work of reference, as well as being a handsome coffee table book.

Lots of examples, and lots of info about the artists and the publisher s

Bought as a present for a friend. A really high quality book, with lots of different prints and interesting information to go with them

This book provides lots of detail about artist and publishers. It is clearly presented and well illustrated. Overall, an extremely useful reference book. I'm very glad it purchased it.

The person is going to love reading this book.