Snow, Wave, Pine: Traditional Patterns in Japanese Design

Rating:
Summary: Nice, but...
Review: The photographs are wonderful, the book is classy. The text is kept short to not interfere with the pictures.
A bit too compressed, in my opionion. I would have liked more than four lines of text telling me that something is often depicted.
It's a wonderful book to have it displayed on a table, and to show off a little bit, but that's not the reason why I buy books...

Rating:
Summary: Beauties to Behold
Review: This eye-filling book clearly illustrates the rich symbolism of Japanese design. Though not meant as an all-inclusive guide to Japanese arts, the pictorial choices are wonderful. Each design "theme" is accompained by brief but highly informative text. There is also a generous selection of family crests (mon), which would be of particular interest to kimono enthusiasts. This color-saturated album is a joy to look at and would complement Merrily Baird's more complete and scholarly tome, "Symbols of Japan," which, though awesomely researched, has rather weak illustrations in several sections.