I am fascinated by Japanese design, so I had a great pleasure in reading Patricia J. Graham’s book. It’s a very interesting and affordable publication for anyone keen on Japanese aesthetics. If you want to broaden your knowledge about this topic, this book will smoothly guide you through all those interesting issues.

I would say that for the person for  whom Japan and it’s aesthetics is all new ( and we hope, thrilling) this book is very useful to explain what the Japanese are in touch with, and how it developed. This book traces the history and cultural significance of what the Japanese ( as well as those of us in the West who are open to it) consider beautiful, and along with the imagery of the book the explanation of what we’re looking at is truly illuminating.

Former professor and museum curator Patricia J. Graham presents Japanese Design: Art, Aesthetics & Culture, a studious exploration of the artistic ideals that permeate Japanese culture, from its architecture and fine objects of art to everyday utensils or snack food packaging. Full color photography on almost every page illustrate Graham's insights into the history, traditions, and aesthetic principles of expressions ranging from folk crafts to architecture, clothing, pottery, woodblock printings, silk hangings and much more. A treasury for art connoisseurs as well as students and scholars in search of inspiration, Japanese Design: Art, Aesthetics & Culture is highly recommended.

Patricia Graham brings us a world of joy and surprise in her new way of looking at Japan's long and unique design tradition that has a basis in deep rooted values deriving from nature worship and a social structure emphasizing tight bonds between community members. She succeeds beautifully in revealing its essential points through her presentation that features both a wide range of fine arts and the unknown craftsman's point of view.

Patricia Graham has skillfully identified the main currents of the Japanese design sensibility and succinctly traced their origins and permutations in terminology, usage, and formal values over the course of Japan’s historic eras.  She seamlessly traces the interaction of Japan and the West during the nineteenth century and highlights the brilliant innovations achieved through to the present both contextually and by means of a wide-ranging medley of illustrations. A further bonus is the more than two dozen capsule biographies of the Japanese and Western philosophers, scholars, artists, architects and craftsmen whose contributions merit further attention.