Getting Started: Japanese Art
This section provides information on English language resources for Japanese art, including print books and ebooks, article databases, images, streaming media, and digital resources.
Get started with the Quick Links section of this guide before exploring the topic-specific resources in this section.
Note:
English language print materials on Japanese art are located in the Music, Art & Architecture Library.
Print materials on related history, aesthetics, and humanities topics can be found at the Koerner Library and/or Rare Books & Special Collections.
Japanese language materials can be found at UBC's Asian Library.
Databases
Start your search by looking at the Databases section of the general Art History & Visual Art guide.
Then explore the topic-specific databases below.
- Asia-Studies Full-text Online This link opens in a new windowReports on business, government, economic, environmental and social issues in 55 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
- Bibliography of Asian Studies This link opens in a new windowContains nearly 800,000 records on all subjects (especially in the humanities and the social sciences) pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia published worldwide from 1971 to the present.
- Digital Dictionary of Buddhism This link opens in a new windowContains terms from Chinese, Japanese and Korean Buddhism. The dictionary is fully searchable, and the site also includes browsable indices, presentations about the dictionary, and details of contributors.
- Meiji Japan: The Edward Sylvester Morse Collection from the Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum This link opens in a new windowPapers from the Edward Sylvester Morse Collection at the Peabody Essex Museum's Phillips Library, Salem. Edward Sylvester Morse (1838-1925) was one of the first Americans to live in Japan.
Articles / Journals
Print & Electronic Journals @ UBC Library
To find a specific journal, search by Title here:
For a selective list of print journals related to Japanese art, browse the UBC Library Catalogue with the following subject headings, while using the "Subject begins with" or "Subject contains" search options. Here are a few examples:
Select Art Publications
This is a selection of art journals in UBC Library holdings related to Japanese art:
- Bijutsushi (Journal of the Japanese Art History Society)
Available in print at the Music, Art & Architecture Library at: N1 .B55 S55 (1950-Present). - Artibus Asiae
Online coverage: 1925-2014.
Also available in print at the Music, Art & Architecture Library at: N1 .A75 (1925-Present). - Arts asiatiques
Online coverage: 1954-2018.
Also available in print at the Music, Art & Architecture Library at: N1 .A85 (1954-Present). - Kobijutsu (Quarterly review of fine arts)
Available in print at the Music, Art & Architecture Library at: N7350 .K62 (1963-1993).
(Note: Text in Japanese with table of contents in English). - Arts of Asia
Available in print at the Music, Art & Architecture Library at: N8 .A78 A85 (1971-Present). - Kokka
Available in print at Rare Books & Special Collections, and the Music, Art & Architecture Library at: N1 .K46 (1889-Present).
(Note: Text in Japanese and English). - Orientations
Online coverage: 2020-Present.
Available in print at the Music, Art & Architecture Library at: N1.O74 H6 (1970-Present). - Bijutsu kenkyū
Available in print at the Music, Art & Architecture Library at: N1 .B55 (1932-Present).
(Note: Text in Japanese with some English). - Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review
Online coverage: 2011-Present. - Impressions: Journal of the Japanese Art Society of America
Online coverage: 1976-2016. - Oriental Art
Available in print at the Music, Art & Architecture Library at: N1 .O7 (1948-2013). - Asian art & culture
Available in print at the Music, Art & Architecture Library at: N1 .A842 A78 (1994-1996).
Subject Headings & Keywords
Listed below is a selection of art subject headings that can be used for keyword searching in the UBC Library Catalogue.
Click on the links to browse books on specific subjects.
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By general Japanese art and artists: |
By historic period:
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By context or influence: |
By topic in visual and performing arts:
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Select Books on Japanese Art
Highlighted Resources
Since Meiji: Perspectives on the Japanese Visual Arts, 1868-2000 by Call Number: Online / N7354.5ISBN: 9780824834418Publication Date: 2011
The Tale of Genji: A Visual Companion by Call Number: Online / ND1059ISBN: 9780691188751Publication Date: 2018
Ravens and Red Lipstick: Japanese photography since 1945 by Call Number: TR105 .F75 2018ISBN: 9780500292877Publication Date: 2018
Radicalism in the Wilderness: International Contemporaneity and 1960s Art in Japan by Call Number: N7355.4 .T66 2016ISBN: 9780262034128Publication Date: 2016
Aesthetic Life: Beauty and Art in Modern Japan by Call Number: N72.S6 L56 2019ISBN: 9780674237308Publication Date: 2019
Dictionaries & Encyclopedias
Images from the Floating World: the Japanese print, including an illustrated dictionary of ukiyo-e by Call Number: NE1321.8 .L36 1978ISBN: 9780399121937Publication Date: 1978
Encyclopedia of Contemporary Japanese Culture by Call Number: Online / DS822.5ISBN: 9780415143448Publication Date: 2001
Sourcebooks & Documents
Traditional Japanese Arts and Culture by Call Number: NX584.A1 T73 2006ISBN: 9780824828783Publication Date: 2006
Images
- Artstor This link opens in a new windowA digital image library for the arts and sciences with an unparalleled range of images licensed for educational use at UBC.
- Grove Art Online This link opens in a new windowThe foremost scholarly art encyclopedia, covering global art and architecture from prehistory to present day. Peer-reviewed articles are accompanied by images, bibliographies, and links to additional resources.
- Japan SearchA national platform for digital resources of various fields, including Humanities and Art resources. Operated by the National Diet Library in cooperation with a variety of other organizations in Japan.
- Library of Congress: Prints and Photographs Division: Fine Prints: Japanese, pre-1915More than 2,500 Japanese woodblock prints and drawings, dating from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. Many schools and traditions are represented, but strengths include Ukiyo-e ("pictures of the floating -- or sorrowful -- world") and Yokohama-e ("pictures of Yokohama").
- Library of Congress: The Floating World of Ukiyo-E: Shadows, Dreams & SubstanceThis exhibition (2001-2002) showcases the LoC's holdings of Japanese prints, books, and drawings from the 17th to the 19th centuries. These works are complemented by related works from the Library's collections created by Japanese and Western artists into the 20th century.
- Kyoto National Museum: Collection and Image DatabasesOver 10,000 high-resolution images more than 5,000 objects or sets of objects from the museum collections, with commentary in multiple languages.
- Tokyo National MuseumImages of cultural properties owned by the museum whose copyrights have expired and are accessible to the public. Note: descriptive metadata in individual item records is in Japanese.
- Nichibunken: Search Results Web results International Research Center for Japanese Studies: Japanese Art OverseasImages of -- and original source information on -- Japanese art (paintings, woodblock prints, netsuke, ceramics, lacquerware, sculpture, metalwork, etc.) in the collections of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts and the State Hermitage Museum in Russia, the Ferenc Hopp Museum of East Asian Arts in Hungary, and other museums.
- Getty Research Portal: Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties (TNRICP)Search more than 900 digitized Japanese art exhibition catalogues.
- Ukiyo-e: Japanese Woodblock Print SearchSearch for Japanese woodblock prints by taking a picture of an existing print and view similar prints across multiple collections.
- Ritsumeikan University Art Research Center (ARC): Ukiyo-e PortalSearch the ARC's online Ukiyo-e collection by keyword, artist, work or series title, carver's name, and more.
Websites
- The MET: Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History: Japanese artEssays, works of art, chronologies, and keywords related to Japanese art in the collections at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
- Ritsumeikan University Art Research Center (ARC)A comprehensive list of all the ARC's collection databases, including resources on ukiyo-e, woodblock prints, maps, textiles, photos, early and modern books, and more.
- JAANUS Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System (online dictionary)Contains approximately 8000 terms related to traditional Japanese architecture and gardens, painting, sculpture and art historical iconography, from approximately the 1st century to the end of the Edo period (1868).
- JAHF | Japanese Art History ForumA joint effort of two US professional societies: the College Art Association and the Association for Asian Studies. Search the website for Japanese art news, exhibitions, and publications.
- PoNJA-GenKon (ポンジャ現懇) | Post-1945 Japanese Art Discussion GroupAn online listserve group that offers a forum for interaction and debate on issues addressing post-1945 Japanese art and Japanese modernity.
- NBN | New Books Network: East Asian StudiesNBN is a consortium of author-interview podcast channels dedicated to raising the level of public discourse by introducing scholars and other serious writers to a wide public via new media.
- SFMOMA: Focus on Japanese PhotographyCentered on SFMOMA’s large, diverse collection of Japanese photography from the postwar years to the present, this digital publication examines the development of the country’s distinctive and innovative photographic culture through the work of key practitioners of the last six decades.