A profound sense of the aesthetic beauty in all things pervades the
whole of Japanese culture, finding perhaps its clearest expression in
the decorative, applied, and pictorial arts. Characterized by a mastery
of line and composition, and noted for lyrical scenes of exquisite
beauty, the genius of Japanese art has bequeathed to the world a
remarkable and distinctive design legacy.
This exceptionally versatile collection of traditional Japanese designs
and motifs presents the working artist with a treasury of 360
copyright-free designs. All have been especially adapted by noted artist
Carol Belanger Grafton for ready use by illustrators, designers, and
craftspeople. Painstaking effort has been made to preserve the original
spirit and subtlety of detail while simultaneously sharpening the lines
and enhancing the reproducibility of the designs and motifs.
There are several lovely ceramic and textile patterns. However, most of
the design motifs in this compendium were taken from woodblock prints.
This particular medium was invented in China and introduced to Japan
before 1000 A.D., flourishing thereafter and reaching its zenith in the
Ukiyo-e (floating world) school of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.
Accompanying these depictions of people in traditional garb, and
accessories such as fans, keys, kites, and umbrellas, are many
charmingly decorative family crests arranged in mostly circular
configurations. Also included are full-page compositions of bold
geometric design, vignettes of ethereal delicacy, as well as a generous
sampling of nature's bounty: cherries, radishes, plum blossoms, lions,
elephants, dogs, cranes, parrots, turtles, butterflies, even demons and
dragons, and much more―often in several arrangements, many with reversed
images.
Artists, designers, illustrators, students, and teachers will find this
indispensable collection of 360 traditional Japanese designs and motifs
rendered in clean, crisp, black-and-white, copyright-free illustrations
to be a remarkably fertile source of illustrative inspiration and design
solutions.
