The Actor's Image

Rating:
Summary: Exquisite printing of rare Kabuki prints.
Review: Few books can match the quality of this production. The paper is first rate, and the color reproduction is as close to perfect as possible. There are no muddy images or inaccurate colors in this book.

The commentary is scholarly, as you would expect in a book from the Art Institute of Chicago. Other books, such as "100 Views of Edo" have more engaging and accessible descriptions. However, the lack of immediate appeal is more than made up for by the clarity, consistency and scholarship inherent in this entire book.

The prints reproduced in the book are especially rare, and the book is even more attractive because it contains so many of these rare prints. The Katsukawa School of print makers worked during a relatively early stage of the wood block era, and many of the prints shown in the book exist nowhere else. To top it all off, most of the prints are in excellent condition.

This is a book to be savored slowly. Page by page, line by line, each image adding to the impact of the last and the next.

It's worth the money.

Rating:
Summary: Bravo! Clark Gives the Most Complete Work on the Katsukawas
Review: This work is the long awaited third installment in the series on the Japanese prints in the Art Institute of Chicago, the first 2 of which were limited to 500 and 1000 copies each and are now quite rare. This, more available, volume is a masterpiece and much worth the price--both cheaper and more informed than the earlier volumes. The Actor's Image was literally years in the making, and represents a vast amount of research and a lifetime of study by Timothy Clark, a true expert on Japanese prints. Don't let the price stop you--this work is worth a dozen of the common books on ukiyo-e.