This is the first book to present today's traditional crafts under one cover and the first and only guide to the contemporary craft centers of Japan. A monumental effort seven years in the making, the Japan Crafts Sourcebook catalogs an array of items found throughout the country and discusses their history, background, and contemporary standing. An insightful introduction by Diane Durston delves into the intricacies of Japanese craft and contemplates the future of Japan's ongoing artisan traditions. With over ninety items from all genres - textiles, ceramics, wood, bamboo, lacquer, paper, and metal - and a wealth of illustrations, the Japan Crafts Sourcebook provides the perfect introduction to this cherished but vanishing world, and will prove invaluable for artists, craftspeople, designers, researchers, and lovers of the handmade object everywhere.

Excerpt from Arts and Crafts of Old Japan This little book is intended not for the collector or the connoisseur, but merely for those who require an introduction to a field of art hitherto little explored but which will well repay further study. For fuller information on the subject many sources are available, but a word of caution is necessary. A bibliography of works on Japanese art would be misleading rather than useful, for much of what has been written regarding it is, as criticism, quite valueless. On Japanese painting the most important, indeed the only sound work, is contained in a series of articles contributed by Mr Arthur Morrison to The Monthly Review, 1902-3. The writings of Mr E. F. Strange deal fully and adequately with Colour Printing; Captain Brinkley is a good authority on Keramics, and Mr Josiah Conder on Landscape Gardening and Flower Arrangement. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.