Cart
Free US shipping over $10
Proud to be B-Corp

Folk Art Potters of Japan Brian Moeran (Universities of Hong Kong at Exeter, UK and Zheijiang Gongshan, China)

Folk Art Potters of Japan By Brian Moeran (Universities of Hong Kong at Exeter, UK and Zheijiang Gongshan, China)

Summary

Not only rewrites the history of contemporary Western ceramics but also engages in two important discourses in anthropology today: one concerned with art and aesthetics; the other with Orientalism. Amply illustrated, with a frank description of the operation of Japan's art pottery world.

Folk Art Potters of Japan Summary

Folk Art Potters of Japan: Beyond an Anthropology of Aesthetics by Brian Moeran (Universities of Hong Kong at Exeter, UK and Zheijiang Gongshan, China)

This is a study of a group of potters living in a small community in the south of Japan, and about the problems they face in the production, marketing and aesthetic appraisal of a kind of stoneware pottery generally referred to as mingei, or folk art. It shows how different people in an art world bring to bear different sets of values as they negotiate the meaning of mingei and try to decide whether a pot is 'art', 'folk art', or mere 'craft'.
At the same time, this book is an unusual monograph in that it reaches beyond the mere study of an isolated community to trace the origins and history of 'folk art' in general. By showing how a set of aesthetic ideals originating in Britain was taken to Japan, and thence back to Europe and the United States - as a result of the activities of people like William Morris, Yanagi So etsu, Bernard Leach and Hamada Sho ji - this book rewrites the history of contemporary western ceramics.

Folk Art Potters of Japan Reviews

'One of the strengths of this book is that it contextualizes a rich, tightly focused ethnography within discussions of the implications of the data to larger theoretical questions Although grappling with abstract theoretical matters, this book is well organized, highly readable, and always grounded in the case study of the potters. Influences are always shown to be reciprocal or circular and not linear. The splendid photographs bring the pots and the setting to life. If Blake can see a world in a grain of sand, Moeran can in a grain of clay, and he has depicted it for us in rich and satisfying detail.' - Karen A. Smyers, Asian Folklore Studies

About Brian Moeran (Universities of Hong Kong at Exeter, UK and Zheijiang Gongshan, China)

Brian Moeran

Table of Contents

Introduction; Chapter 1 The Japanese Mingei Movement; Chapter 2 A Pottery Community; Chapter 3 Social Organization; Chapter 4 Ecology and Social Structure; Chapter 5 Labour Cooperation; Chapter 6 Environmental and Social Change; Chapter 7 The Mingei Boom and Economic Development; Chapter 8 The Decline of Community Solidarity; Chapter 9 Theory and Practice in Japanese Mingei; Chapter 10 Folk Art, Industrialization and Orientalism;

Additional information

NLS9780700710393
9780700710393
0700710396
Folk Art Potters of Japan: Beyond an Anthropology of Aesthetics by Brian Moeran (Universities of Hong Kong at Exeter, UK and Zheijiang Gongshan, China)
New
Paperback
Taylor & Francis Ltd
1997-08-27
276
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a new book - be the first to read this copy. With untouched pages and a perfect binding, your brand new copy is ready to be opened for the first time

Customer Reviews - Folk Art Potters of Japan