The Dawn of the Floating World

Rating:
Summary: Only superlatives can do justice to this book.
Review: Everything about "Dawn of the Floating World: Early Ukiyoe Treasures from the Museum of Fine Arts" is superb: the quality of the unglazed paper, the beautiful design and color reproductions, and the solid scholarship that accompanies the presentation of rare Japanese prints from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

If you are a collector or student of Edo-period Japanese prints, you undoubtedly have dozens if not hundreds of books in your art library, but few will match the quality of this volume or give you access to such a rich lode of information on the earliest of the Japanese printmakers (1650-1765). Nor will many other books stand up to the quality of the text provided by an all-star team drawn from the British Museum, Museum of Fine Arts/Boston, and Dartmouth College. The text entries present: poems in romanized Japanese as well as English translation, aesthetic assessments of the prints, biographical information on artists, interpretations of symbolic devices, and details--where relevant--of the kabuki plays, actors, locations, and activities depicted. Even the footnotes, printed at the inner margins of the pages devoted to text, are fascinating and will help intellectually curious readers to readily locate the best of source material.

Rating:
Summary: Only superlatives can do justice to this book.
Review: Everything about "Dawn of the Floating World: Early Ukiyoe Treasures from the Museum of Fine Arts" is superb: the quality of the unglazed paper, the beautiful design and color reproductions, and the solid scholarship that accompanies the presentation of rare Japanese prints from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

If you are a collector or student of Edo-period Japanese prints, you undoubtedly have dozens if not hundreds of books in your art library, but few will match the quality of this volume or give you access to such a rich lode of information on the earliest of the Japanese printmakers (1650-1765). Nor will many other books stand up to the quality of the text provided by an all-star team drawn from the British Museum, Museum of Fine Arts/Boston, and Dartmouth College. The text entries present: poems in romanized Japanese as well as English translation, aesthetic assessments of the prints, biographical information on artists, interpretations of symbolic devices, and details--where relevant--of the kabuki plays, actors, locations, and activities depicted. Even the footnotes, printed at the inner margins of the pages devoted to text, are fascinating and will help intellectually curious readers to readily locate the best of source material.