Katachi: Classical Japanese Design

There is no English equivalent to the word katachi, which roughly translates to mean the essence of Japanese design. It is a term that expresses the aesthetic beauty, the refined minimal form, the time-tested functionality, and the fine workmanship of traditional Japanese crafts that have endured for centuries. Author Takeji Iwamiya (1920-1989), one of Japan's foremost photographers and a professor at the Osaka University of Arts, spent a lifetime collecting examples of katachi. Many years in the making, his masterwork Katachi: The Essence of Japanese Design is a thoughtfully rendered tribute to the objects that epitomize the Japanese design aesthetic, as well as a celebration of the culture in which they were produced. At 432 pages with 600 black-and-white photographic reproductions, this contemplative volume offers a thorough sampling of objects organized around materials that have played an important role in Japanese life for centuries: paper, wood, bamboo, fiber, clay, metal, and stone. The collection ranges from simple carved boxwood combs to the elaborate Edo-period hairstyles they were used to create; from endearing cherubic palace dolls to an ominous array of kitchen knives; from austere arrangements of garden stepping-stones to exquisitely detailed floral sugar confections. A thought-provoking essay by Mutsuo Takahashi entitled "Through the Mirror of Japan" precedes the images, which are presented in successive full-page spreads and identified in brief endnotes. This elegant softcover book will appeal to designers, artists, connoisseurs of Japanese art and culture, and many others. --A.C. Smith