The Best Japan Art & Architecture Books

“What are the best books about Japanese Art & Architecture?” We looked at 155 of the top books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!

The top 10 titles, all appearing on 2 “Best Art & Architecture” book lists, are ranked below by how many lists they appear on. The remaining 100+ titles, as well as the lists we used are in alphabetical order at the bottom of the page.

Happy Scrolling!

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Top 10 Japanese Art Books

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10 .) Courtyard Gardens of Kyoto’s Merchant Houses by Katsuhiko Mizuno

Lists It Appears On:

• Japan Visitor 3
• Japan Visitor 4

“One of the pleasures of visiting Kyoto is to wander around narrow streets lined with machiya, the traditional townhouses of the merchant class. Tucked away inside each of these unusually long, narrow dwellings is a hidden oasis: a small garden known as the tsuboniwa. Following on from Landscapes for Small Spaces and The Hidden Gardens of Kyoto, the third book by garden enthusiast and photographer Katsuhiko Mizuno focuses on these miniature courtyard gardens of the machiya.
A wide variety of gardens are beautifully photographed and presented: from those in shops, inns, restaurants, and tearooms, to gardens in many private homes. A total of 150 color images from fifty-two houses showcase the flawless Kyoto aesthetic and use of limited space. Surrounding architectural features, such as shoji sliding doors, reed blinds, beams, railings, and walkways are also featured.
Each photograph is accompanied by analytical and insightful comments from the author, making this a useful reference book for all garden lovers, as well as a visual feast for anyone with an interest in traditional Japanese design.”

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9 .) Discovering the Arts of Japan: A Historical Overview by Tsuneko S. Sadao

Lists It Appears On:

• Japan Visitor 1
• Japan Visitor 2

This handy reference book is perfect for anyone interested in Japanese art, whether they be art history students and enthusiasts or tourists visiting Japan. A comprehensive overview of the major trends in art throughout the history of Japan, Discovering the Arts of Japan includes a select bibliography and list of major museums housing collections of Japanese art. Handsomely presented and easy-to-use, this book offers a valuable introduction to the subject, and encourages further in-depth study of specific periods and art forms.

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8 .) Eikoh Hosoe: Kamaitachi by Eikō Hosoe

Lists It Appears On:

• Goodreads
• Goodreads

Fans of Japanese culture, for a little more than the cost of the prix-fixe sushi dinner at New York restaurant Masa, you can own one of the classics of Japanese photography. More than 35 years after it first appeared, Kamaitachi, a long out-of-print masterwork by Japanese photographer Eikoh Hosoe, gets its first publication outside Japan. Not just a reprint but a recreation in collaboration with the photographer and in homage to the innovative original, this limited edition holds 40 black-and-white tritone images, each of which receives the scope of a gatefold. Slipcased and protected by a clamshell box, the book is not just a publication but an objet d’art in itself. Hosoe was known for pushing the boundaries of traditional photography through his interactions with important Japanese artists such as Butoh dancer Tasumi Hijikata and novelist Yukio Mishima. In Kamaitachi, he sought to recapture, with choreographic style, some of the lost landscapes and images of his childhood experience in the closing years of World War II.

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7 .) New Bar and Club Design by Bethan Ryder

Lists It Appears On:

• Japan Visitor 1
• Japan Visitor 2

The sequel to the highly successful and critically praised book, Bar and Club Design, New Bar and Club Design is an elegant photographic journey through the latest international design trends in the bar and club industries, highlighting locations completed since 2001. New Bar and Club Design documents a resurgence of cocktail culture and an explosion of the style bar, places that are professionally designed and serve high-quality spirits, wine, and cocktails. Such bars have continued to open in cities such as New York, London, and Tokyo, as well as in locales like Beirut and Bangkok. Bethan Ryder has also documented a new interest in creating lower budget designer bars that are as visually interesting and unusually designed as the big-budget productions, such as Andy Wahloo in Paris and Loungelover in London. Club culture also continues to thrive, albeit on a far smaller scale than the superclubs of the 1990s. Nightclubs have grown cozier. Late-night lounge bars have emerged to cater to the grown-up clubber, offering comfort and luxury. The futuristic superclubs still being built now offer the very latest in technology and audiovisual entertainment. Divided by category into bars and restaurant bars, hotel bars, and clubs, each profile includes imaginative photographs, thoughtful descriptions, and architectural plans of the design. Sure to be an excellent guide for bar and club owners, architects, and designers, New Bar and Club Design also will appeal to travelers and trendsetters of every description.

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6 .) Shibori: The Inventive Art of Japanese Shaped Resist Dyeing by Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada

Lists It Appears On:

• Japan Visitor 3
• Japan Visitor 4

“Potential for creating designs in textiles can be seen even in the physical properties of cloth. The simple fact that cloth tightly compressed into wrinkles or folds resists the penetration of dye is an opportunity-an opportunity to let the pliancy of textiles speak in making designs and patterns.

People around the world have recognized this opportunity, producing resist designs in textiles by shaping and then securing cloth in various ways before dyeing. Yet in no other country has the creative potential of this basic principle been understood and applied as it has in Japan. Here, in fact, it has been expanded into a whole family of traditional resist techniques, involving first shaping the cloth by plucking, pinching, twisting, stitching, folding, pleating, and wrapping it, and then securing the shapes thus made by binding, looping, knotting, clamping, and the like. This entire family of techniques is called shibori. “

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5 .) The Fine Art of Kimono Embroidery by Shizuka Kusano

Lists It Appears On:

• Japan Visitor 3
• Japan Visitor 4

Shizuka Kusano is one of the most admired and recognized textile artists in Japan today. With the publication of The Fine Art of Kimono Embroidery, readers in the West will come to know and appreciate her work for its great beauty and grace. Kusano’s canvases are kimono, obi (the sash used to tie the kimono) and tapestries, on which she creates extraordinary compositions in brilliant color and subtle tones, with a rich contrast in textures. Her themes are drawn from Japanese poetry, literature and art, and feature such seasonal motifs as trees, flowers, birds, and streams, designs which are uniquely Japanese in sensibility and expression. Working exclusively with silk threads and fabric, and delicately balancing the use of space in her composition, Kusano’s designs achieve the sophistication for which the best Japanese art is known.

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4 .) Wabi Sabi: The Japanese Art of Impermanence by Andrew Juniper

Lists It Appears On:

• Japan Visitor 1
• Japan Visitor 2

Taken from the Japanese words wabi, which translates to less is more, and sabi, which means attentive melancholy, wabi sabi refers to an awareness of the transient nature of earthly things and a corresponding pleasure in the things that bear the mark of this impermanence. As much a state of mind—an awareness of the things around us and an acceptance of our surroundings—as it is a design style, wabi sabi begs us to appreciate the pure beauty of life—a chipped vase, a quiet rainy day, the impermanence of all things. Presenting itself as an alternative to today’s fast-paced, mass-produced, neon-lighted world, wabi sabi reminds us to slow down and take comfort in the natural beauty around us.

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3 .) Warriors of Art: A Guide to Contemporary Japanese Artists by Yumi Yamaguchi

Lists It Appears On:

• Japan Visitor 3
• Japan Visitor 4

Recently the West has been inundated by a steady flow of images from manga, anime, and the video games that are a key part of todays Japanese visual culture. At the same time, Japanese contemporary artists are gaining a higher profile overseas: many Westerners are already familiar with Takashi Murakamis brightly colored, cartoonlike characters, or with Junko Mizunos grotes-cute Lolita-style girls. Perhaps less familiar are the absurd fighting machines of Kenji Yanobe, the many disguises of Tomoko Sawada, or the grotesque fairytale landscapes of Tomoko Konoike. Warriors of Art features the work of forty of the latest and most relevant contemporary Japanese artists, from painters and sculptors, to photographers and performance artists, with lavish full-color spreads of their key works. Author Yumi Yamaguchi offers an insightful introduction to the main themes of each artist, and builds up a fascinating portrait of the society that has given birth to them: a Japan that still bears the scars of atomic destruction, a Japan with a penchant for the cute and the childish, a Japan whose manga and anime industries have come to dominate the world.

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2 .) Japanese Art by Joan Stanley-Baker

Lists It Appears On:

• Biblio
• Goodreads

The uniqueness of Japanese culture rests on the fact that, throughout its history, Japan has continually taken, adapted, and transformed diverse influences from Korea, China, the South Seas, Europe, and the Americas into distinct traditions of its own. Extensively revised, updated, and expanded since its first publication, this authoritative survey of the arts of Japan from the prehistoric period to the present brings together the results of the most recent research on the subject. Profusely illustrated with examples from all the arts―painting, calligraphy, the decorative arts, and architecture―and with a wide-ranging bibliography, Japanese Art addresses itself equally to those who come to the subject for the first time and to the student. It is a concise overview of a fascinating and perplexing culture in which interest has never been greater than it is today.

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1 .) Japanese Castles 1540-1640

Lists It Appears On:

• Japan Visitor 1
• Abebooks

The landscape of 16th- and 17th-century Japan was dominated by the graceful and imposing castles constructed by the powerful ‘daimyo’ of the period. In this the most turbulent era in Japanese history, these militarily sophisticated structures provided strongholds for the consolidation and control of territory, and inevitably they became the focus for many of the great sieges of Japanese history: Nagashino (1575), Kitanosho (1583), Odawara (1590), Fushimi (1600), Osaka (1615) and Hara (1638), the last of the battles that brought an end to a period of intense civil war. This title traces their development from the earliest timber stockades to the immense structures that dominated the great centres of Osaka and Edo.

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The 100+ Additional Best Japanese Architecture Books

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#	Book	Author	Lists
(Titles Appear On 1 List Each)
11	2000 Years of Japanese Art	Yukio Yashiro; Peter C. Swann	Questia 2
12	A Century of Japanese Photography	Nihon Shashinka Kyōkai	Goodreads
13	A Guide to the Gardens of Kyoto (revised edition)		Japan Visitor 4
14	A Guide to the Japanese Stage: From Traditional to Cutting Edge		Japan Visitor 2
15	A History of Modern Japanese Aesthetics	Michael F. Marra	Goodreads
16	A Japanese Touch For Your Garden		Japan Visitor 2
17	A Sky Longing for Memories: The Art of Makoto Shinkai		Concept Art Empire
18	Aida Makoto – Monument For Nothing	Aida Makoto	Goodreads
19	Akira Yamaguchi – The Big Picture	Akira Yamaguchi (Artist)	Goodreads
20	An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Japanese Family Crests		Japan Visitor 2
21	An Introduction to the Arts of Japan	Peter C. Swann	Questia 2
22	ARAKI by ARAKI		Japan Visitor 2
23	Araki: Tokyo Lucky Hole	Nobuyoshi Araki (Photographs)	Goodreads
24	Architects Today		Japan Visitor 1
25	Art of the Japanese Postcard	J. Thomas Rimer; Anne Nishimura Morse	Boston University Libraries
26	Arts Of Japan	Seiroku, Noma	Biblio
27	Arts of Japan: Mfa Highlights	Anne Morse (Editor)	Goodreads
28	Baccano! Illustration Art Book		Concept Art Empire
29	Belladonna of Sadness: A Companion Book to the 1973 Cult Japanese Anime Film	J.C. Gabel (Editor)	Goodreads
30	Castles of the Samurai: Power and Beauty		Japan Visitor 1
31	Chikanobu: Modernity and Nostalgia in Japanese Prints	Bruce Coats	Goodreads
32	Chirri & Chirra	Kaya Doi	Goodreads
33	Cowboy Bebop Art Book		Concept Art Empire
34	Create Your Own Japanese Garden		Japan Visitor 1
35	Creative Space: Urban Homes of Artists and Innovators		Japan Visitor 3
36	Culture and Customs of Japan	Noriko Kamachi	Questia 2
37	Death Note Illustrations Art Book		Concept Art Empire
38	Der Mond: The Art of Neon Genesis Evangelion		Concept Art Empire
39	Dororo	Osamu Tezuka	Goodreads
40	Dragon Ball: The Complete Illustrations		Concept Art Empire
41	Duel Art: Kazuki Takahashi Yu-Gi-Oh! Illustrations		Concept Art Empire
42	Early Japanese Images		Japan Visitor 2
43	Edo Jo (Edo Castle, in Japanese)		Abebooks
44	Edo No Machi, Part 1		Abebooks
45	EDO: Art in Japan 1615-1868	Robert T. Singer	Goodreads
46	Epochs of Chinese and Japanese Art	Ernest Fenollosa	Goodreads
47	Essays on Japan: Between Aesthetics and Literature	Michael Marra	Goodreads
48	Experimental Arts in Postwar Japan: Moments of Encounter, Engagement, and Imagined Return	Miryam Sas	Goodreads
49	Fault Lines: Cultural Memory and Japanese Surrealism	Miryam Sas	Goodreads
50	Frog in the Well: Portraits of Japan by Watanabe Kazan, 1793-1841		Japan Visitor 3
51	From Castle to Teahouse: Japanese Architecture of the Momoyama Period	John B. Kirby Jr	Questia 1
52	Future Boy Conan Art Book		Concept Art Empire
53	Ghost in the Shell Original Collection		Concept Art Empire
54	Gift Wrapping with Textiles		Japan Visitor 2
55	Graphic Art Of Japan	Holloway, Owen E	Biblio
56	Guerilla Art		Japan Visitor 3
57	Heian Kenchiku (Heian Architecture, in Japanese)		Abebooks
58	Higi Kaifu: Kasuga Taisha – Ikite Iru Shosoin		Abebooks
59	Hiroshige: Japan’s Great Landscape Artist		Japan Visitor 3
60	Historic Rings: Four Thousand Years of Craftsmanship		Japan Visitor 2
61	Hokusai – the Artist’s Library	C J Holmes	Biblio
62	Hokusai, First Manga Master	Jocelyn Bouquillard	Goodreads
63	Houses and Gardens of Kyoto		Japan Visitor 1
64	Images from the Floating World: The Japanese Print	Richard J. Lane	Goodreads
65	Impressions of Japanese Architecture and the Allied Arts	Ralph Adams Cram	Questia 1
66	Inside Game Design		Japan Visitor 3
67	Isamu Noguchi & Modern Japanese Ceramics		Japan Visitor 2
68	James Jean: Zugzwang	James Jean (Artist)	Goodreads
69	Japan	Bradley Smith	Biblio
70	Japan		Japan Visitor 3
71	Japan and Britain after 1859: Creating Cultural Bridges	Olive Checkland	Questia 2
72	Japan at the Dawn of the Modern Age	Donald Keene, etal.	Boston University Libraries
73	Japan Journeys: Famous Woodblock Prints of Cultural Sights in Japan		Japan Visitor 3
74	Japan-Ness in Architecture	Arata Isozaki	Goodreads
75	Japan’s Master Gardens: Lessons in Space and Environment		Japan Visitor 4
76	Japanese Architecture	William Alex	Questia 1
77	Japanese Design: Art, Aesthetics & Culture		Japan Visitor 4
78	Japanese Fine Arts	Sagara, Tokuzo	Biblio
79	Japanese Genre Painting: The Lively Art of Renaissance Japan	Ichitaro Kondo; Roy Andrew Miller	Questia 2
80	Japanese Hermeneutics: Current Debates on Aesthetics and Interpretation	Michael F. Marra	Goodreads
81	Japanese Ink-Painting: Lessons in Suiboku Technique	Ryukyu Saito	Questia 2
82	Japanese Kabuki Doll Book		Biblio
83	Japanese Popular Prints: From Votive Slips To Playing Cards	Rebecca Salter	Goodreads
84	Japanese Woodblock Prints: Artists, Publishers and Masterworks: 1680 – 1900	Andreas Marks	Goodreads
85	Japanscapes: Three Cameras, Three Journeys		Japan Visitor 2
86	Kazunomiya: Prisoner of Heaven, Japan, 1858	Kathryn Lasky	Goodreads
87	Kimono Design: An Introduction to Textiles & Patterns		Japan Visitor 4
88	Kindai Mei Kenchiku: Kyoto Shashinkan		Abebooks
89	Kingyo: The Artistry of Japanese Goldfish		Japan Visitor 4
90	Kinkakuji, Ginkakuji (In Japanese)		Abebooks
91	Legend In Japanese Art	Henri L Joly	Biblio
92	Lineage of Eccentrics Matabei to Kuniyoshi	Nobuo Tsuji	Goodreads
93	Living Wabi Sabi: The True Beauty of Your Life		Japan Visitor 2
94	Masterworks of Japanese Art	Charles S. Terry; Charles S. Terry	Questia 2
95	Minka to Machinami: Kanto Chubu		Abebooks
96	Mobile Suit Gundam Art Book		Concept Art Empire
97	Monument for Nothing	Makoto Aida	Goodreads
98	Nanzenji (In Japanese)		Abebooks
99	Nara Buddhist Art	Kobayashi, Takeshi	Biblio
100	New Hotel Design		Japan Visitor 1
101	New Japan Architecture		Japan Visitor 1
102	Obtaining Images: Art, Production and Display in Edo Japan	Timon Screech	Goodreads
103	Origins: The Creative Spark Behind Japan’s Best Product Designs		Japan Visitor 3
104	Photography in Japan: 1853-1912		Japan Visitor 3
105	Pictures and Words: New Comic Art and Narrative Illustration		Japan Visitor 3
106	Poemotion 2	Takahiro Kurashima	Goodreads
107	Poemotion 3	Takahiro Kurashima	Goodreads
108	Pokémon Adventures 20th Anniversary Illustrations		Concept Art Empire
109	RackGaki		Japan Visitor 3
110	Shiro to Jokamachi		Abebooks
111	Shunga	Evans, Tom and Mary Anne	Biblio
112	Small Houses		Japan Visitor 1
113	Stampe Giapponesi	Catherine David	Goodreads
114	Steins;Gate Art Works Imaginations of Huke		Concept Art Empire
115	Super Potato Design: The Complete Works of Takashi Sugimoto: Japan’s Leading Interior Designer		Japan Visitor 1
116	Tenmyouya Hisashi: Masterpiece	Tenmyouya Hisashi (Artist)	Goodreads
117	The Art and Architecture of Japan	Alexander Soper; Robert Treat Paine	Questia 1
118	The Art Lover’s Guide to Japanese Museums		Japan Visitor 2
119	The Art Of East Asia	Fahr-Becker, Sabine Hesemann; Michael Dunn; Sri Kuhnt-Saptodewo; Editor-Gabrielle	Biblio
120	The Art Of Fullmetal Alchemist		Concept Art Empire
121	The Art of Howl’s Moving Castle		Concept Art Empire
122	The Art of Kiki’s Delivery Service		Concept Art Empire
123	The Art of My Neighbor Totoro		Concept Art Empire
124	The Art of Spirited Away		Concept Art Empire
125	The Art Works of Lupin the Third		Concept Art Empire
126	The Asian Mystique: Dragon Ladies, Geisha Girls, and Our Fantasies of the Exotic Orient	Sheridan Prasso	Goodreads
127	The Deep-Seated Grudge, Part 2	Kazuo Koike	Goodreads
128	The Elements of Japanese Design: A Handbook of Family Crests, Heraldry & Symbolism	John W. Dower	Goodreads
129	The Folk Arts of Japan	Hugo Munsterberg	Questia 2
130	The Four Great Temples		Abebooks
131	The History of Japanese Photography		Japan Visitor 2
132	The Japanese House and Garden	Tetsuro Yoshida; Marcus G. Sims	Questia 1
133	The Japanese Influence in America	Clay Lancaster	Questia 1
134	The Landscape Painting of China and Japan	Hugo Munsterberg	Questia 2
135	The Lesson of Japanese Architecture	Jiro Harada	Questia 1
136	The Pen – Ikeda Manabu	Ikeda Manabu (Artist)	Goodreads
137	The Secret Techniques of Bonsai		Japan Visitor 3
138	The Sketchbooks of Hiroshige	Sherman E. Lee (Introduction)	Goodreads
139	The Surviving Works Of Sharaku	Harold G and Louis V Ledoux Henderson	Biblio
140	The Tokaido Road: Traveling and Representation in EDO and Meiji Japan	Jilly Traganou	Goodreads
141	The Very Small Home		Japan Visitor 1
142	The World of the Meiji Print: Impressions of a New Civilization	Julia Meech-Pekarik	Questia 2
143	Tokyo Fashion City: A Guide to Tokyo’s Trendiest Fashion Districts		Japan Visitor 4
144	UTAMARO: A Chorus of Birds	Utamaro	Goodreads
145	Utamaro: Portraits from the Floating World	Tadashi Kobayashi	Goodreads
146	Utamaro: Songs of the garden	Kitagawa Utamaro	Goodreads
147	Uzumaki Naruto: Illustrations		Concept Art Empire
148	What is Japanese Architecture?		Japan Visitor 1
149	White	Kenya Hara	Goodreads
150	Yokai – Shigeru Mizuki	Shigeru Mizuki (Artist)	Goodreads
151	Yoshimasa and the Silver Pavilion		Japan Visitor 2
152	Yoshitoshi’s One Hundred Aspects Of The Moon	John Stevenson	Goodreads
153	Yu Yu Hakusho Art Book		Concept Art Empire
154	Zusetsu Heian-kyo		Abebooks
155	鉄コン筋クリート[Tekkon KinKurîto ] All in One	Taiyo Matsumoto	Goodreads

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11 Best Art & Architecture Book Sources/Lists

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Source	Article
Abebooks	Japanese Architecture
Biblio	JAPANESE ART
Boston University Libraries	Art & Architecture of Japan
Concept Art Empire	20 Best Anime Art Books: The Ultimate Collection
Goodreads	Popular Japanese Art Books
Japan Visitor 1	Architecture Books
Japan Visitor 2	Japan Art Books
Japan Visitor 3	Japan Art Books II
Japan Visitor 4	Japan Art Books III
Questia 1	Japanese Architecture
Questia 2	Japanese Art