Designing Modern Japan

Description

From cars to cameras, design from Japan is ubiquitous. So are perceptions of Japanese design, from calming, carefully crafted minimalism to avant-garde fashion and street subcultures. But these portrayals overlook the creativity, generosity and sheer hard work that have gone into creating and maintaining design industries in Japan. In Designing Modern Japan, Sarah Teasley deftly weaves together the personal stories of people who shaped and shape Japan's design industries with social history, economic conditions and geopolitics. Key to the account is how design has been a strategy to help communities thrive during turbulent times, and to make life better along the way. Deeply researched and superbly illustrated, Designing Modern Japan will appeal to the wide audience for Japanese design, history and culture. '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.

Sarah Teasley is Professor of Design at RMIT University, Melbourne. She is co-editor of Global Design History (2011).

"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."-- "Choice" "Teasley's 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."--Elizabeth Guffey, professor of art and design history, theory, criticism at SUNY Purchase, 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, 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, Northwestern University, author of "Post-Fascist Japan: Political Culture in Kamakura after the Second World War" "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 "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 nineteenth 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"