Designing Modern Japan

Reviews / Votes

An "under the hood" look at an industry which became one of Japan's globally recognised soft powers and is to my knowledge the ONLY book of its kind . . . Teasley describes the complex jigsaw of Japanese design in the context of society, business, government and real people in a way that is engaging and fascinating . . . if you really want to understand why design matters to Japan, this is a great place to start and is highly recommended. * The Japan Society Review * Teasley offers a richly layered account . . . [with] careful attention to context [that is] useful to readers both interested in the history of Japan and in design more broadly. This book serves as an excellent reminder that there is nothing essential or inevitable about the design history of Japan. -- Michelle L. Hauk * Journal of Design History * Teasley draws on a rich and varied collection of sources to weave history, sociology, design commentary and fascinating anecdotes into her account of the evolution of Japanese design following the country's Meiji Restoration of 1868 . . . Designing Modern Japan has much to offer readers who are interested in the cultural and social history of modern Japan as well as the many transformations of design in Japan as it emerged from a feudal society into a global economy. The photographs and illustrations, accompanied by Teasley's informed commentary, provide a fascinating glimpse into the lives of Japanese people and their aspirations at a time of tumultuous change from the late 19th century onward . . . peppered with fascinating historical data . . . the meticulous research could make this book read almost like an academic study, but Teasley's accessible style and expert commentary make it equally rewarding for the general reader. * Nikkei Asia * Designing Modern Japan explores design in the unfolding contexts of modernization, empire and war, defeat and reconstruction, postwar economic acceleration, and beyond. Throughout, Teasley is sensitive to issues of gender and class within the communities of design she studies. The book combines the history of design with social, economic, and geopolitical history, placing design and its material objects carefully in the larger currents of modern and contemporary Japan. Designing Modern Japan is a history of both the people who shaped Japanese design and the designs that were integral to life in modern Japan. * New Books Network * In this excellent book tracing the development of modern Japanese design over a century and a half, Sarah Teasley encourages communication between historians and scholars of design by weaving usually separate strands of scholarship into a rich fabric that is accessible and useful to students and scholars in both fields. Beginning in the nineteenth century and continuing roughly up to the present day, the book describes the intertwined ideas, exigencies, and desires shaping the creation of a design aesthetic that is both characteristically modern and identifiably Japanese . . . Teasley skillfully draws on work in history and design to tell a synthesized narrative about the connections between design and the major trends of modern Japanese history, showing how that history formed the context and drive for the development of modern Japanese design. -- Jessamyn R. Abel * Technology and Culture * In this wide-ranging and expansive book, Teasley examines design not as an isolated series of events, but as the intersection of design and society. Beginning in the Edo Period (1600-1868) and extending to the present day, Teasley situates design movements within their political, economic, and social contexts to elucidate not just the how of design but the why. The detailed background of historical processes makes the book accessible to nonspecialists and those in corollary fields like marketing and economic history. The inclusive approach covers a variety of design outlets: graphic design like magazine covers, advertising, and packaging; craft production like lacquer and ceramics; consumer goods like fans and cars; and intangibles like fashion all receive their due. The book is also inclusive geographically, examining design created not just in Tokyo but in other centers like Osaka and in the Japanese empire. Women are also given careful attention. By interweaving all these disparate elements, Teasley makes a convincing case for her argument that design is "predicated on political economy," and that through education and sponsorship, government intervention through education systems and sponsorship was as significant as creativity in forming modern Japanese design. Recommended. * Choice * From coffee sets and clothing to graphic magazines, Sarah Teasley provides a highly analytic account of the history of design in Japan, from the mid-nineteenth century to today. Economic development policies and design education, the emergence of the modern designer and consumer society, colonialism and propaganda, the relationship with the United States in the period after the Second World War, counterculture, feminism and the work of auteur designers today are all examined. Teasley deftly demonstrates how seemingly unrelated conditions and events create and reflect multiple historical moments, just as one star linked to another, then another, creates constellations in the sky. A vibrant and powerful decoding of the modern history of Japan through design. A new and incomparable classic. * Kashiwagi Hiroshi, Professor Emeritus, Musashino Art University, Japan, design historian and critic * With ease and authority, Teasley cuts through the many layers of economic, political and cultural history of Japan. Her meticulously detailed account of Japanese design history gives a satisfyingly complete picture of design as a practice that people have - and continue - to use for their own end. Teasley's insistence that design not only intrudes into what historians, politicians and economists have commonly thought of as history but was the result of a continuous interplay between abstract thought and concrete application is brilliant. Ultimately, she has provided a dynamic model for interpreting the underlying questions of modern Japanese history. * Elizabeth Guffey, Professor of Art and Design History, Theory, Criticism at SUNY Purchase and founding editor of Design and Culture * This shrewd and elegantly illustrated book shows how Japanese designers and manufacturers have used design "to weather change and sometimes as a lever to accelerate change." Focusing on their institution-building and meaning-making activities, Sarah Teasley traces how a variety of carefully-designed objects and images circulated around Japan, through the empire, and across the globe. The result, like the objects under study, is the narrative they created of Japan itself as transnational, modernist, and enduring. * Laura Hein, Harold H. and Virginia Anderson Professor of History at Northwestern University and author of Post-Fascist Japan: Political Culture in Kamakura after the Second World War. *