A Color Album of the Supernatural by the Japanese Woodblock Master Yoshitoshi's Thirty-Six Ghosts

Stevenson, John; with an introduction by Richie, Donald

ISBN 10: 0834801892 / ISBN 13: 9780834801899

Edité par John Weatherhill, Inc., New York and Tokyo and Blue Tiger Books, Hong Kong, 1983

A propos de cet article

English text.; Hardcover( with dust jacket).; 27 x 37 cm.; 1.2 kg.; 92 pages with colour illustrations.; Used with signs of wear on the exterior and interior. The dust jacket shows: minor edge wear, scuffs and scratches; tiny chip at the bottom of the spine and small tear at the top right side of the back cover; small wear mark at the bottom left side of the back cover. Interior with minor signs of wear.; Yoshitoshi Tsukioka was the most original woodblock-print artist of the late nineteenth- century in Japan. His bizarre designs, products of the profound cultural shock that Japan experienced on opening her doors to the West after centuries of isolation, strike a responsive chord today as we too struggle with excessively rapid change. Although Yoshitoshi was immensely popular in the last years of his relatively short life, public adulation did not bring release from the demons of anguish and instability that haunted him, nor did it prevent him from going mad shortly before he died in 1892. His wildly emotional designs continued to be reissued for about ten years after his death and were then forgotten. The only prints for which Japanese connoisseurs acknowledged him in the first half of this century were a single series of half-length portraits of women, entitled Thirty-two Aspects, the rest of his work was dismissed as sensational. Postwar tastes changed, however, and especially in Europe Yoshitoshi's vivid imagination and superb draftsmanship began to be appreciated again. A number of exhibitions of Yoshitoshi's prints in the United States and Germany during the past decade have led to rediscovery of his fresh perceptions of Japan's myths, legends, and feudal history. The culmination of Yoshitoshi's career is the series reproduced in this volume: Shinkei Sanjurokkaisen, or New Forms of Thirty-six Ghosts. In these Yoshitoshi illustrated the thirty-six Japanese tales that fascinated him most from charming folk story to bloody saga of revenge. The prints shown here are from a set of gorgeous first impressions, all reproduced in full color and near- actual size. Opposite each plate appears the story on which the design is based intriguing both in itself and for what it reveals of the Japanese psyche. An essay on Yoshitoshi and his times explores the Japanese tradition of ghost stories, Yoshitoshi's personal encounters with ghosts, and the tumultuous period in which he lived. A commentary on his life's work and an explanation of his artistic techniques enhance appreciation of these remarkable prints, and an engaging introduction by renowned Japanologist Donald Richie probes the nature of Japanese ghosts and contrasts them with their Western counterparts. Coming at a time when Yoshitoshi's work is again receiving wide acclaim, Yoshitoshi's Thirty-six Ghosts provides a stunning insight into the final chef-d'oeuvre of one of the most creative Japanese artists of the nineteenth century.

N° de réf. du vendeur 2301B

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: A Color Album of the Supernatural by the Japanese Woodblock Master Yoshitoshi's Thirty-Six Ghosts
• Éditeur: John Weatherhill, Inc., New York and Tokyo and Blue Tiger Books, Hong Kong
• Date de parution: 1983
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 0834801892
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9780834801899
• Reliure: Hardcover
• Édition: 1st Edition
• État de l'article: Good
• État de la jaquette: Dust Jacket Included
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Japanese Art
  • Asian Art