Introduction

This Guide - devoted to printed material only, not to material on the Internet - excludes writings not available in English and (with a few exceptions) doctoral dissertations. It does include some specialized articles in scholarly journals or annuals such as Archives of Asian Art, Ars Orientalis, Artibus Asiae, Monumenta Nipponica, and Oriental Art, but it excludes, again with a few exceptions, the short articles - usually surveys of exhibitions or of collections - published in three journals aimed at a wider public: Arts of Asia, Asian Art, and Orientations.

In some respects we have cast a wide net, including material not only on the major forms of art but also on arms and armor, folk art, and gardens. We are grateful to Patricia Graham, Penelope Mason, Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis, Elizabeth de Sabato Swinton, and Cherie Wendelken for valuable suggestions.

Because this list of recommended readings is limited to works in English, names of Japanese authors of translated works are given here in Western style, with the family name last. Because this website cannot support macrons, and because doubling the vowel can be misleading, some words (especially proper names) in our text do not exactly correspond to material on the title pages of books.

The material in this Guide is organized as follows:

• General Works: Getting Started, introductory books, broad studies.

• Surveys of Japanese Art by Medium: Painting, Prints, Sculpture, Calligraphy, Ceramics, Lacquer and Enamel, Textiles, Arms and Armor, Folk Art, Architecture, Gardens.

• Studies of Japanese Art by Period: Pre-Buddhist (to mid-sixth century); Asuka (552-645) and Hakuho (645-710); Nara (710-94); Heian (794-1185, with the clan name Fujiwara referring to 951-1086); Kamakura (1185-1333) through Nanbokucho (1336-92, with 1333-36 called the Kenmu Restoration); Muromachi or Ashikaga (1392-1573); Momoyama (1573-1615); Tokugawa or Edo (1615-1868); Meiji (1868-1912); and Taisho (1912-26), Showa (1926-89), Heisei (1989-).

Authors' Note. We welcome corrections and suggested additions. Please e-mail your comments to: sbarnet@emerald.tufts.edu, or send them to us at 29 Ash Street, Cambridge, MA 02138-4840.