The most comprehensive book covering Japanese inro and netsuke this book an in-depth guide to Japanese miniature laquer art. Inro and Other Miniature Forms of Japanese Lacquer Art is designed both for the novice in Japanese lacquer art and for the advanced collector who specializes in such delightful forms of that art as the inro and the netsuke. For readers who desire a general acquaintance with the subject, there are absorbing chapters on the history of Japanese lacquer, on miniature lacquer forms and on the subject matter of lacquer art. For the collector, there is not only highly technical information on lacquer manufacture and techniques but also a comprehensive chapter on netsuke. Three other features of the book make it an invaluable one for collectors: Tthe biographical listing of more than 900 miniature-lacquer artists The genealogies of the outstanding lacquer schools The reproductions of 59 signatures of representative artists. Included are over 250 illustrations. All important miniature lacquer forms are represented. In addition, there is a well-selected and useful bibliography.

During America's Gilded Age (dates), the country was swept by a mania for all things Japanese. It spread from coast to coast, enticed everyone from robber barons to street vendors with its allure, and touched every aspect of life from patent medicines to wallpaper. Americans of the time found in Japanese art every design language: modernism or tradition, abstraction or realism, technical virtuosity or unfettered naturalism, craft or art, romance or functionalism. The art of Japan had a huge influence on American art and design. Title compares juxtapositions of American glass, silver and metal arts, ceramics, textiles, furniture, jewelry, advertising, and packaging with a spectrum of Japanese material ranging from expensive one-of-a-kind art crafts to mass-produced ephemera. Beginning in the Aesthetic movement, this book continues through the Arts & Crafts era and ends in Frank Lloyd Wright's vision, showing the reader how that model became transformed from Japanese to American in design and concept. Hannah Sigur is an art historian, writer, and editor with eight years' residence and study in East and Southeast Asia. She has a master's degree from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and is completing a PhD in the arts of Japan. Her writings include co-authoring A Master Guide to the Art of Floral Design (Timber Press, 2002), which is listed in "The Best Books of 2002" by The Christian Science Monitor and is now in its second edition; and "The Golden Ideal: Chinese Landscape Themes in Japanese Art," in Lotus Leaves, A Master Guide to the Art of Floral Design (2001). She lives in Berkeley.