"Edo: Art in Japan 1615-1868"

[Wendy Phillips]

"Edo: Art in Japan 1615-1868"
by John T. Carpenter and Robert T. Singer
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0300077963/wendysmall
"Edo: Art in Japan 1615-1868" is the lavish catalog of an
exhibition organized on a scale never before attempted--even
in Japan. There, the art of the Edo period is considered too
vast a subject for a single show. Edo, the old name for
Tokyo, has come to represent the two and a half centuries
when the shogun's government intentionally isolated Japan
from the rest of the world. Much of the huge wealth
generated by this intensely hierarchical and inward-looking
society was devoted to the creation of art and status items
for the military rulers and rich merchants who supported
them, with craftsmen producing works of extraordinary
elegance and inventiveness. The show comprises nearly 300
objects, including 50 national treasures or important
cultural properties, many of which have never before left
Japan.