Tales of Japan: Scrolls and Prints from the New York Public Library

A major exhibit of Japanese illustrated books and handscrolls from The New York Public Library's Spencer Collection and Japanese woodblock prints from the Prints Collection will be displayed at the Library from February 1 to March 25, 1986, and will travel from there to Tokyo, Kobe, Portland, and Fort Worth. The Spencer Collection, the largest collection of Japanese illustrated books and handscrolls outside Japan, houses some of the finest examples of emaki, or narrative handscrolls, in the West, as well as examples of the ink drawings twelfth-century Buddhist monks used to transmit secret iconographic images to their disciples. From the Prints Collection there are representative works by Utamaro, Hiroshige, and others. Oxford is pleased to announce publication of Tales of Japan, a complete, fully illustrated catalogue of this exhibit. The ideal companion for the museum-goer, it provides full catalogue entries for the fifty-three books and scrolls from the Spencer Collection and citations for the sixty-eight woodblock prints. Here are detailed descriptions of the magnificent, twenty-one foot scroll "Procession of the Korean Mission," which dates from 1682 and depicts an extraordinary procession of drummers, soldiers, and horses in Korean costume; as well as manuscripts illustrating classical favorites such as the Tale of Genji and the Tales of Ise, tenth and eleventh-century popular literature, battle stories, mythic tales, and legends of beasts and even insects. Each of the catalogue entries, and many of the citations, are illustrated by color or black and white photographs. Also included are an introductory essay that traces the history of Japanese manuscript development from the twelfth to the nineteenth century and explains the importance of pictorial representation in traditional Japanese art, a Foreword describing the significance of the Library's collections, and biographies of several of the artists whose works are represented. The New York Public Library's exhibit makes public two extraordinary collections of Japanese illustrated manuscripts and woodblock prints. Tales of Japan, the first interpretive work on these collections, provides both a context for viewing the exhibit and a brilliant study of the subject for devotees of Japanese art.