This Japanese design book presents the refined interiors of Japan with dozens of stunning color photos and extensive commentary . This delightful book shows that wherever it is used, the creative juxtaposition of blue and white provides both visual nourishment and spiritual balm. From the ephemeral beauty of a wind-blown noren curtain to the powerful geometry of zabuton cushions, to the calming symmetry of a soba cup—whether new or old, homely or sophisticated—all of these objects convey a lyrical message that speaks to our senses, inspiring us to seek out new ways to collect, create, and live with Japanese blue & white. Blue & White Japan will appeal to home-decorators looking for new inspiration or to the casual reader looking for insight into the fascinating world of Japanese design.

From Finland to Guatemala blue and white is a classic color combination. But nowhere is this design element more a part of the interior landscape and culture than in Japan, where blue and white appear together in fine porcelains and on tiles, in textiles, kitchenware, futon coverings and kimonos. in this delightful, popular book, available in hardcover since 1996, Amy Sylvester Katoh and photographer Yutaka Satoh blend photograph and essay to explore the mix of functionality and beauty that is at the heart of Japanese style. They offer a rich array of great design ideas-from soba cups to sinks-in blue and white. Along the way, you'll meet Japanese indigo textile craftsmen and learn about such indigo techniques as katzome, stencil dyeing, and shibori, a delicate, sophisticated form of tie-dyeing in indigo. From hats to vases, floor cushions to tea settings, Blue and White Japan is a fascinating, inspiring look at this classic design.

Review of sashiko, one of Japan's oldest folk arts

This fascinating book—part ethnography, part memoir—traces Japan’s vibrant café society over one hundred and thirty years. Merry White traces Japan’s coffee craze from the turn of the twentieth century, when Japan helped to launch the Brazilian coffee industry, to the present day, as uniquely Japanese ways with coffee surface in Europe and America. White’s book takes up themes as diverse as gender, privacy, perfectionism, and urbanism. She shows how coffee and coffee spaces have been central to the formation of Japanese notions about the uses of public space, social change, modernity, and pleasure. White describes how the café in Japan, from its start in 1888, has been a place to encounter new ideas and experiments in thought, behavior, sexuality , dress, and taste. It is where a person can be socially, artistically, or philosophically engaged or politically vocal. It is also, importantly, an urban oasis, where one can be private in public.

Oceans and decades apart, two women are inextricably bound by the secrets between them. Japan, 1957. Seventeen-year-old Naoko Nakamura’s prearranged marriage to the son of her father’s business associate would secure her family’s status in their traditional Japanese community, but Naoko has fallen for another man—an American sailor, a gaijin—and to marry him would bring great shame upon her entire family. When it’s learned Naoko carries the sailor’s child, she’s cast out in disgrace and forced to make unimaginable choices with consequences that will ripple across generations. America, present day. Tori Kovac, caring for her dying father, finds a letter containing a shocking revelation—one that calls into question everything she understood about him, her family and herself. Setting out to learn the truth behind the letter, Tori’s journey leads her halfway around the world to a remote seaside village in Japan, where she must confront the demons of the past to pave a way for redemption. In breathtaking prose and inspired by true stories from a devastating and little-known era in Japanese and American history, The Woman in the White Kimono illuminates a searing portrait of one woman torn between her culture and her heart, and another woman on a journey to discover the true meaning of home.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1971.