Japan Awakens: Woodblock Prints of the Meiji Period (1868-1912) Hardcover – Illustrated, September 1, 2008

It is a well made book with good photographs of the prints.

This is truly a wonderful book for those that are looking for Japanese woodblock print portrayals of the Meiji period. There is one rather disappointing aspect of this book and that is the lack of prints depicting the Russo-Japanese war which has been so important upon world history. Other than that this is a must for woodblock print enthusiasts.

Arrive on time. Beautiful book.

First things first, "Japan Awakens" is a fine art book profusely illustrated in vibrant colors with handsomely reproduced woodblock prints from the Meiji period, a time usually (and perhaps fairly) characterized as dramatically transitional. And indeed, a number of the prints depict technological and architectural transformations in the urban landscape in particular as well as people's everyday life in general, for which several technically pre-Meiji prints of the foreign presence in Yokohama set the stage.The preponderance of images selected for inclusion though involve the inculcation and propagation of nationalism: more placidly in the profusion of portraits and ceremonial scenes of the Meiji Emperor and Empress, more aggressively in the plethora of implausibly idealized battle scenes from the Sino-Japanese War and to a lesser degree the Russo-Japanese War (ironically, a few lurid crime scenes from the newspapers are rather strikingly more graphically violent than most any of the military tableaux). All of these prints are as compelling to look at as they are historically significant, to be sure, but "Japan Constructs an Imagined Community (at Gunpoint)" may have been a more apt if admittedly clumsy title.Certainly the title as it stands tends to grate on the nerves with its implied "Last Samurai" historiography. Japan was not asleep before 1868 (or 1853), nor was it a "backward feudal state" as described in the dust jacket's breathlessly salesmanlike prose. The actual explanatory text in the book itself is less offsetting (as it were), but contextualizing the prints for an intended audience utterly unfamiliar with Japan doesn't allow a lot of margin for the historical nuance necessary when dealing with this kind of imagery. On the other hand, clear explanations of technological and material developments in the printmaking process along with overviews of the featured artists both known and anonymous are helpfully informative and add to one's appreciation of the vivid array of visual works on view. And these in the end will carry the day for this attractive volume.

Great images that are clearly reproduced and a joy to look at. It's unfortunate that the text is rather sparse - this rather lets the book down.