Meiji Fine Art Textiles
Edited by John E. Vollmer
Texts by John E. Vollmer, Sonia Ashmore, Will Chandler, Diane Genre, Takashi Hirota,Hiroko T. McDermott, Asako Nagakawa, Iwao Nagasaki, and Susan Tosk
Re-envisioning Japan is the first truly comprehensive book about Japanese art textiles of the Meiji period.
Lavishly illustrated, the book features the bijutsu senshÅku, or fine art textiles, that generated a flurry of excitement among international markets between the mid-1870s and the second decade of the twentieth century. The collaboration of seven international scholars explores the craftsmanship and remarkable talent of the Meiji luxury textile producers, artists, and artisans and documents the reactions of consumers in Japan and abroad. Based on centuriesold traditional modes of textile production, the makers of fine art textiles modernized exports and elevated Japan’s prestige in the world.
This book showcases the spectacular ornamental textiles that were made for the Western market during Japan’s Meiji era (1868–1912) and now part of museum and private collections in Japan, North America, and Europe.
John E. Vollmer is an internationally recognized curator and scholar in the fields of Asian art, textiles, costumes, decorative arts, and design. He is author of thirty exhibition catalogues and many academic and popular books and articles.
Sonia Ashmore has taught, lectured, and published on design and the decorative arts. From 2006 to 2009 she was a Research Fellow at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Will Chandler has served as Curator of Decorative Arts at the San Diego Museum of Art and now works as an independent curator, researcher, and writer.
Diane Genre is a collector and former dealer of Japanese art.
Takashi Hirota, a leading scholar on late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century fineart textile production at the Takashimaya Company, is professor at the Kyoto Women’s University and served as curator at both the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art and the Kyoto Municipal University of Arts.
Hiroko T. McDermott is an independent scholar living in Cambridge, England. She is the author, with Clare Pollard, Katsumi Mori, and George Schwartz, of Threads of Silk and Gold: Ornamental Textiles from Meiji Japan.
Asako Nagakawa from Tokyo is a fashion and design historian. She is an Associate Professor at Otsuma Women’s University, Tokyo.
Iwao Nagasaki is a professor at Kyoritsu Women’s University in Tokyo, where he teaches in the Department of Apparel Science. His writings include topics ranging from theatrical costume to specialized textile-patterning techniques. From 1982 to 2002 he was curator at the Tokyo National Museum.
Susan Tosk is a New York–based dealer in Japanese decorative arts principally dating from the Meiji and TaishÅ eras.