Shows and describes Edo-period art, including screens, armor, woodblock prints, pottery, and kimonos

Accompanies an exhibition of the same name held at the Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts, February 14-July 26, 2020.

This survey examines the art and artists of the Edo period, one of the great epochs in Japanese art. The author focuses on the urban aspects of Edo art, including discussions of many of Japan's most popular artists - Korin, Utamaro and Hiroshige, among others.

Designed for Pleasure is a dazzling probe of Japan's famous "floating world" of spectacle and entertainment. From luxury paintings of the pleasure qurters to Hokusai's iconic "Red Fugi," Designed for Pleasure presents a focused examinatin of the priod's fascinating networks of art, literature, and fashion, proving that the artists and the publishers and patrons who engaged them not only morrored the tastes of their energetic times, they created a unifying cultural legacy. Contributors include John T. Carpenter, Timothy Clark, Julie Nelson Davis, Allen Hockley, Donald Jenkins, David Pollack, Sarah E. Thompson, and David Boyer Waterhouse.

Creative Art: Methods and Materials educates readers about a variety of art methods and the ways different civilizations have used them in artistic expression. Each of the fourteen chapters is designed around a specific art method and material, and includes examples of art works and the artists who created them. Students learn about bronze casting, stone carving, clay sculpture, woodcuts and posters, glass work, and installation art. Each method is matched to artists both ancient and modern. Rather than adhering to a standard approach that focuses on white, male, European artists, the book broadens the student's perspective by including often overlooked female artists. Global in approach and comprehensive in coverage of arts forms, representations, and styles throughout history, Creative Art has been developed for sixteen-week courses in art appreciation, or introductory survey courses in art history.

The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, The Imperial Household Agency, and Nikkei, Inc., in association with the Embassy of Japan.

Japanese art, like so many expressions of Japanese culture, is fascinatingly rich in its contrasts and paradoxes. Since the country opened its doors to the outside world in the mid-nineteenth century. Japanese art and culture have enjoyed an immense popularity in the West. When in 1993 renowned scholar Penelope Mason wrote the the first edition of History of Japanese Art, it was the first such volume in thirty yearsto chart a detailed overview of the subject. It remains the only comprehensive survey of its kind in English. This second edition ties together more closely the development of all the media within a well-articulated historical and social context. New to the Second Edition Extended coverage of Japanese art beyond 1945 New discoveries both in archeology and scholarship New material on calligraphy, ceramics, lacquerware, metalware, and textiles An extended glossary A comprehensively updated bibliography 94 new illustrations