An Introduction to Japanese Prints by Joe Earle, and: The History of Japanese Printing and Book Illustration by David Chibbett, and: Evolving Techniques in Japanese Woodblock Prints by Gaston Petit and Amadio Arboleda (review)

Books 343 and meets the author's aim to keep his instructions as 'uncomplicated as possible'. Combining concision with clarity. each chapter covers a different aspect of figure painting. including color. composition. depiction of motion and figure painting techniques. Because learning is sequential. I wonder about placing a rudimentary lesson on Gesture on page 53 behind more advanced instruction. such as that on foreshortening . His own words reinforce this: 'At the outset of any drawing. I like to establish the movement in the entire figure ... [with] simple gesture sketches. But page 53 is not the 'outset'. Also. -while the 15 plates of frontal anatomy leave no aspect of the female form unexplored. merelytwo plates of malesare included. and they are limited to rear views! But these points do not affect my view that this book is excellently written. illustrated and designed. An Introduction to Japanese Prints. Joe Earle, Pitman Books. London. 1980. 46 pp.• iIIus. £2.95. The History of Japanese Printing and Book Illustration. David Chibbett. 264 pp.• iIIus. $50.00; and EvolvingTechniquesin Japanese WoodblockPrints. Gaston Petit and Amadio Arboleda. 175 pp.• iIIus. $18.50. Kodansha Int., New York. 1977.Reviewed by Sean O'Driscoll* It may be surprising to learn that. although printing is almost certainly a Chinese invention, the earliest surviving examples of printed text that were not made with movable type are on Japanese Buddhist charms dating from 764 A.D. Movable type printing was invented in China between 960 and 1279 A.D. utilizing bronze ceramic type; it did not reach Japan until the end of the 16th century. The early printed works, until about 1598. were of Buddhist origin; the Japanese printing industry was dominated by this religious sect. In the next century. about 1680. there was a new surge of publishing activity in secular illustrated fiction that led to the appearance of independent printed designs, what is now in English called Japanese Prints. These three related books are complementary and cover the whole gamut from the earliest times until the 1970s. Each of the books is very well presented. with appropriate illustrations in full color. by authorities in their respective fields. Earle in the first book provides an expert summarization that covers printing in Japan. technique and the background and development of the Ukiyoe style. The term Ukiyoe means to the Japanese 'pictures of the floating world'. a designation applied to pictorial art with connotations of rapidly changing fads and fashions, optimism and a general lack of thought for the morrow: Hishikawa Moronubu was the first artist to adopt this floating world style in book illustration. I commend the author on his judicious selection of the 36 color illustrations, which includes an example of the Shunga (erotica), which many museums neglected in the 19th century. The Introduction includes a concise bibliography of books essential to students and teachers. Japanese book illustration attracted Occidental interest only in recent years when it was realized that most Japanese artists made book illustrations or had their works posthumously illustrated. Chibbett's book is an important pioneering effort as the subject of the history of Japanese printing has not previously been so extensivelytreated exceptinJapanese. The first section is devoted to printing, drawing largely from Japanese language sources. The second section gives a history of book illustration and an overall survey of the various schools of art and of their influence on the styles of book illustration. He introduces over 700 printed books and their illustrators. Japanese language characters are included for both authors and titles. In addition to the general index, a detailed bibliography and glossary of Japanese terms are included in the Appendix. The text is further enhanced by 70 black-and-white and 32 color illustrations from the archives of the British Museum, most published for the first time. This book will, I am sure, remain the standard reference work on the subject for many years. The third book covers various techniques of recent years that developed from classical Japanese woodblock printing. It is a *Irish International Arts Center, Castle Matrix. Rathkeale, County Limerick, Ireland. well illustrated step-by-step instructional text on multi-colored printing and on effects produced by manipulation of variables such as...