Smith, Bradley. Japan: A History in Art

Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1964 — 295 p. — ISBN10: 0385032404 / ISBN13: 978-0385032407While it is quite different from western art, Japanese art is no less distinctive and a visual description of the development of modern Japanese culture. In this book, the artwork is presented with a great deal of historical context. Each section begins with a combination of a historical and an art chronology. A great deal of textual explanation is included along with the figures, which is very helpful as it would be very difficult to understand many of the images without it.
The chronology begins with ancient Japan, from the first people who inhabited the islands roughly 4500 B. C. to approximately the year 500 C. E. with the existence of a discernable Japanese civilization. It concludes with the period immediately before the outbreak of World War I in 1914. The final section deals with the Meiji restoration, industrialization and the wars of conquest against China and Russia.
From these images, you can see the development of the modern Japanese state, which can easily be dated as having started in 1868. It is a nation that moved from a feudal structure to a modern industrial power in little more than one generation. Fortunately for us all, that change was well chronicled by the Japanese artists and some of their best work has been collected into this book.