Aesthetic Life: Beauty and Art in Modern Japan Contributor(s): Lippit, Miya Elise Mizuta (Author) |
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ISBN: 0674237307 ISBN-13: 9780674237308 Publisher: Harvard University Press
Binding Type: Paperback - See All Available Formats & Editions Published: January 2019 Click for more in this series: Harvard East Asian Monographs |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - History | Asia - Japan - Art | History - Modern (late 19th Century To 1945) - Literary Criticism | Asian - Japanese |
Dewey: 701.170 |
LCCN: 2016034935 |
Series: Harvard East Asian Monographs |
Physical Information: 0.7" H x 6.9" W x 9.9" L (1.70 lbs) 332 pages |
Themes: - Cultural Region - Japanese |
Features: Bibliography, Illustrated, Index |
Review Citations: Choice 09/01/2019 |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: This study of modern Japan engages the fields of art history, literature, and cultural studies, seeking to understand how the "beautiful woman" (bijin) emerged as a symbol of Japanese culture during the Meiji period (1868-1912). With origins in the formative period of modern Japanese art and aesthetics, the figure of the bijin appeared across a broad range of visual and textual media: photographs, illustrations, prints, and literary works, as well as fictional, critical, and journalistic writing. It eventually constituted a genre of painting called bijinga (paintings of beauties). Aesthetic Life examines the contributions of writers, artists, scholars, critics, journalists, and politicians to the discussion of the bijin and to the production of a national discourse on standards of Japanese beauty and art. As Japan worked to establish its place in the world, it actively presented itself as an artistic nation based on these ideals of feminine beauty. The book explores this exemplary figure for modern Japanese aesthetics and analyzes how the deceptively ordinary image of the beautiful Japanese woman--an iconic image that persists to this day--was cultivated as a "national treasure," synonymous with Japanese culture. |
Contributor Bio(s): Lippit, Miya Elise Mizuta: - Miya Elise Mizuta Lippit is Associate Adjunct Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures and Art History at the University of Southern California. |
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