Description
Book SynopsisThe hugely popular Japanese artist Takehisa Yumeji (18841934) is an emblematic figure of Japan's rapidly changing cultural milieu in the early twentieth century. His graphic works include leftist and antiwar illustrations in socialist bulletins, wrenching portrayals of Tokyo after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, and fashionable images of beautiful womenreferred to as Yumeji-style beautiesin books and magazines that targeted a new demographic of young female consumers. Yumeji also played a key role in the reinvention of the woodblock medium. As his art and designs proliferated in Japan's mass media, Yumeji became a recognizable brand. In the first full-length English-language study of Yumeji's work, Nozomi Naoi examines the artist's role in shaping modern Japanese identity. Addressing his output from the start of his career in 1905 to the 1920s, when his productivity peaked, Yumeji Modern introduces for the first time in English translation a substantial body of Yumeji's texts, in
Trade Review"Naoi’s book is both an outstanding and accessible art history book."
* New Books in East Asian Studies (NBN) *
"Impeccably researched, with copious notes and an invaluable bibliography, this book is required reading for those interested in Japanese art and culture."
* Choice *
"Naoi’s book should establish Yumeji in the English-reading world as one of the most salient creators and personalities of his time... That this most elusive of figures nevertheless remains so in many ways suggests that Yumeji needs several more studies at least. Nozomi Naoi has achieved the laudable goal of launching this endeavorfor scholars writing in English."
* Monumenta Nipponica *
