Editor's Introduction

Chats on Japanese Prints

A. Davison Ficke

[Baren] Editor's Introduction

Topics covered in this book:

The artistic aspects of Japanese prints, with emphasis on the main artists of the Ukiyo-e school.

Target audience:

The interested layman, and the collector.

An overview of the history of the Ukiyo-e prints, focussing on the 'middle years'. The early stages of the art are only lightly touched on, and nothing after the Edo period is mentioned at all.

A highly knowledgeable dilettante's view of the art, the book is an enjoyable read for anyone interested in art - of any kind. In many places in the book, Mr. Ficke speaks about the prints in general concepts, which are applicable to wider fields than merely Japanese art.

Although the scholarship is now dated, and the information on collecting prints and caring for them is hopelessly out-of-date, the book provides an excellent glimpse into the world of that group of late 19th/early 20th century collectors who were the pioneers of Ukiyo-e studies.