Art History Textbooks ReviewsArt History Textbooks Reviews

Poor reproductions (photos)
I had such hopes for this book. A art book about western influence in japanese art. Wonderful. The problem is that the text is superior to the images. This book is just that. The text is well written (4 stars). The reproductions are small or poor. I buy art books for the pictures; as I suspect most art book buyers do. This book, being a scholarly affair, is more interested in information, not reproductions. The reproductions shown are used to illustrate the text.

There is absolutly no excuse for these types of poorly produced books. The technology to make outstanding art books has improved dramatically in the last ten years. If you are an academic looking to fill your bookcase this is your book. If you are looking at this book for fine reproductions, keep looking.

Better than I had expected
I recently purchased a number of items to use in my Japanese scrapbook.
Most of my purchases have been very disappointing, but this purchase was quite the opposite!
The stickers were exactly as was shown on the front cover and on-line.
There are four stickers to a page with the average IMAGE size being 2"x1.5"
Each image is surrounded by a white border and is labeled at the bottom with the title of the piece of art as well as its author.
This makes each sticker approximately 1.7"x2.1"
There were numerous pieces of art included in the 16 stickers.
None of the images were repeated and they were acid free for scrap booking.

What I liked:
Great images of geisha and oiran (courtesan).
Two famous pieces of art containing Mt. Fuji.
Four images of everyday landscapes with cities, bridges, or window-scapes.
Coloring was not overpowering and had NO glitter!

What I did not like:
I need to remove the white borders because they clash with the scrapbook style I use.
As mentioned by another reviewer, two of the images are a little blurry.
I did not like "lovers becoming familiar" sticker.

Overall it was a good price of 0486415651.50 from target and the stickers were worth it = )

Body in Japanese Art
This is a really useful book for people studying contemporary Japanese culture. Understanding the changing nature of the body in Japanese art is key to making sense of what's going on right now in art. My only complaint is that I wish they had a more academically established cast of authors, though the varying backgrounds of the critics allowed for insight into how these issues are cropping up in various fields. (and since the field is growing and changing, it isn't easy to find people with post-doctorate degrees in modern Asian art yet) Naturally, the writing style and critical depth also varied from essay to essay.

Very thorough
This book was extremely well written and very thorough. It's an excellent history of the traditional Japanese skin suit.

Deserving of ongoing mention for any arts collection providing comprehensive coverage of tattooing art
Deserving of ongoing mention for any arts collection providing comprehensive coverage of tattooing art is A History of Japanese Body Suit Tattooing, which explores not only the art involved, but the social and political forces which evolved Japanese methods from prehistoric to modern times. Connections between tattooing and cultural influences are rare, making this a top pick for not only college-level arts collections, but for any college-level holding strong in Japanese history and culture.