REIJINSHA Co., Ltd.｜Publications：POSTWAR JAPANESE ART COLLECTION II

1945 witnessed the dropping of the first atomic bomb in human history on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Japan's acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration.

Amongst the confusion and poverty after its defeat, one after another, many Japanese artists who had needed to remain silent up till then aggressively presented their work even while enduring the material hardships of those days. Within a darkness from which no reprieve was visible, they continued to light the beacon of hope.

Then, facing the high economic growth period of the 1960s, competent artists who began to enjoy those economic riches appeared in a variety of art fields and, one by one, they have steadily left the footprints of postwar Japanese art to history.

Currently, Japan has grown into one of the world's economic giants and, from internationally based artists who are receiving high acclaim abroad to artists who continue their creations based on an Oriental sense of beauty and inherent Japanese traditions, an echelon of artists who connote a great diversity of values has been raised.

However, as we face the 60th anniversary of the postwar era in pursuit of a new world order after the Cold War between East and West, with environmental problems on a global scale, and with confusion eminent in Japanese domestic politics, etc., another major turning point has been visited upon our politics, our economy, and our very lifestyles.

In 1995 and the 50th anniversary of the end of the war, REIJINSHA Co., Ltd. published the epoch-making and comprehensive "POSTWAR JAPANESE ART COLLECTION" that surveyed postwar art in Japan.

A plethora of messages are embedded in excellent works of art, like the artist's feelings and hope for peace, and the social conditions at that time, etc., and the heart of the viewer is made to recollect the importance of peace.

Looking back at the irreplaceable "peace" that has been brought to Japan after the war from the standpoint of the background from which artwork is invented, REIJINSHA hopes to renew all of our thoughts about honoring the state of "world peace" that we have been blessed with, and we look forward to continuously presenting those views.

Based on this goal, we have taken this opportunity that marks 60 years of postwar peace in Japan to publish "POSTWAR JAPANESE ART COLLECTION II", our next comprehensive book on postwar art that focus the spotlight on those artists who created the history of art of Japan as well as artists who are active today, in order to convey to future generations the work of artists of whom Japan should surely boast to the world.

We hope everyone has the opportunity to view the truly enhanced content of this book.
To order "POSTWAR JAPANESE ART COLLECTION II", contact REIJINSHA directly.

POSTWAR JAPANESE ART COLLECTION II

First Printing: June 10, 2005
Layout：		Nonstandard A4 size, p.296, all-color (chronology in monochrome), hardback , clothbound case for permanent collections
Full-volume, parallel descriptions in both Japanese and English
Representative：		Kazuo Noguchi
Publisher：		REIJINSHA Co., Ltd.
Distributor：		LITTLE GULLIVER Co., Ltd.
Printing and Binding：		TOPPAN PRINTING Co., Ltd.
Price：		JP\3,800 yen

※Due to popular demand, there are no more copies in stock at REIJINSHA, but there may still be some copies at bookstore distributors in Japan.

～Main Content～

Contributions from various domains upon the 60th anniversary of the end of the war:
The Program Coordinator of the Ohara Museum of Art, the Secretary-General of the Osaka UNESCO Association, local city mayors, and noted Japanese and foreign art critics each contribute comments from their own viewpoints about the road followed by the art world in Japan for these 60 postwar years.
Masters who created postwar Japanese history:
Included in this book are many masterpieces from the great masters who shaped the history of Japanese art in the postwar days like Kaii Higashiyama, Togyu Okumura, Kinosuke Ebihara and Sotaro Yasui, as well as Shiko Munakata, Taro Okamoto, San-u Aoyama, Denchu Hirakushi, and more. Carefully selected representative works from 198 artists throughout the genres are also included in this single volume, such as painters at the forefront of the contemporary art world in Japan like Koji Kinutani, Teruo Onuma, Reiji Hiramatsu, and Chinami Nakajima, and calligraphers such as Yuho Ozaki and Joteki Bai.
Chronology surveying the 60 years of the arts in postwar Japan:
Standing up from out of the defeat of the war and accomplishing miraculous economic growth, this chronology looks back on the historical road that we Japanese have walked during the 60 years following that war and it mixes in details of the social events, literature, cinema, and words in vogue, etc., that occurred during that time with a focus on the movements in the field of art.

▲Return to top of page