The Modern Masters of Kyoto: The Transformation of Japanese Painting Tradition, Nihonga from the Griffith and Patricia Way Collection Book

Modern Japanese painting executed in traditional media and formats, or nihonga, developed in post-Meiji Restoration Japan to distinguish traditional art from Western-style oil painting. "Modern Masters of Kyoto" presents more than 80 examples of nihonga from Kyoto - hanging scrolls, screens, and an album - dating from the 1860s to the 1940s. Focusing on two exceptionally original artists, Tsuji Kako (1870-1931) and his pupil Tomita Keisen (1879-1936), the volume includes works by their predecessors, their contemporaries, and their successors. More than 40 artists are introduced with a biography, and featured paintings are discussed in the context of the artists' careers and their time. Also included are illustrated essays on the neglected topic of connoisseurship concerning boxes and box inscriptions, with an appendix of seals and signatures. The book introduces Western readers to Kyoto artists, some of whom have yet to be studied even in Japan. Their often visually stunning paintings - most of which have never been published - provide a window from which to glimpse both the past and the modern in Japanese art.Read More