Description
Book SynopsisArticles crafted from lacquer, silk, cotton, paper, ceramics, and iron were central to daily life in early modern Japan. They were powerful carriers of knowledge, sociality, and identity, and their facture was a matter of serious concern among makers and consumers alike. In this innovative study, Christine M.E. Guth offers a holistic framework for appreciating the crafts produced in the city and countryside, by celebrity and unknown makers, between the late sixteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries. Her study throws into relief the confluence of often overlooked forces that contributed to Japan's diverse, dynamic, and aesthetically sophisticated artifactual culture. By bringing into dialogue key issues such as natural resources and their management, media representations, gender and workshop organization, embodied knowledge, and innovation, she invites readers to think about Japanese crafts as emerging from cooperative yet competitive expressive environments involving both human and nonhu
Trade Review"This is a book that brings the past into conversation with the present, inspiring the reader with its insights into possibilities for the future." * Monumenta Nipponica *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Prologue
Introduction
1. Natural Resources
2. Picturing the Early Modern Craftscape
3. Craft Organizations and Operations
4. Tacit Knowledge
5. Technology, Innovation, and Craft Mastery
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
List of Illustrations
Index
