THE GREAT BRONZE AGE OF CHINA: An Exhibition from the Peoples' Republic of China byWen Fong; TREASURES FROM THE BRONZE AGE OF CHINA: An Exhibition from the Peoples'Republic of ChinaReview by: Kathy HaskinsARLIS/NA Newsletter, Vol. 9, No. 3 (MAY 1981), p. 129Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Art Libraries Society of NorthAmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27946530 .

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ARLIS/NA Newsletter, May 1981 129

nature studies. The literature is explained in terms of its creators and its consumers, giving a social and cultural background to the

study of Hokusai's art itself. The inclusion of shunga or erotic books and craftsmen's books is

particularly unusual. Until the 1970's, erotic Japanese prints were avoided in most scholarly sources and presented out of context in

only rather seamy-sided literature, Hillier maintains that the erotic illustrations must be included in any serious study of Hokusai's

work and be viewed in terms of early nineteenth-century Japanese social values, not with the biased appraisal of the post-Victorian

West. The craftsmen's books provide another side of Hokusai, who as a successful illustrator still created pattern books of decoration for combs, kimonos, or pipe bowls. Nothing better explains the lack of boundary between craftsman and artist in Japan than

Hillier's inclusion of these seldom-published works. Not since James Michener's 1959 The Hokusai Sketchbooks has

any publication focused on Hokusai's book illustration, and Michener's book covers only one of the over 270 books in Hillier's

study, Hokusai's Manga or sketchbooks. With such different

purposes and coverage these sources complement one another. More recently, David Chibbett's The History of Japanese Printing and Book Illustration has provided the most comprehensive and

scholarly study in the West of illustrated books, but summary coverage of Hokusai's books in no way obviates the need for Hillier's book. One must hope that the latter's price will not

prohibit its purchase for public and undergraduate libraries in addition to the graduate libraries which should most definitely acquire The Art of Hokusai in Book Illustration.

Nancy S. Allen, Boston Museum of Fine Arts

Additional recent sources on Japanese book illustration:

Sorimachi, Shigeo. Catalogue of Japanese Illustrated Books and

Manuscripts in the Spencer Collection of the New York Public

Library. Tokyo, The K?bunso, 1978. Inventory of 625 illustrated books and manuscripts dating between the eight and early 20th

century.

Sorimachi, Shigeo. Japanese Illustrated Books and Manuscripts in

the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Ireland. Tokyo, The Kobunso, 1979. Inventory of 209 handscrolls and illustrated books dating

from the 9th through 19th century.

THE GREAT BRONZE AGE OF CHINA: An Exhibition from the Peoples' Republic of China/edited by Wen Fong.?New York:

Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980.?386 p.: ill. (most col.).? ISBN 0-87099-226-0: $40.00. TREASURES FROM THE BRONZE AGE OF CHINA: An Exhibition from the Peoples' Republic of China.?New York:

Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980. ?192 p.: ill. (most col.).? ISBN 0-87099-230-9: $9.95.

As the publications which accompany the exhibition, "The

Great Bronze Age of China," these two catalogs serve as a lavish introduction to an esoteric legacy. Each volume contains a catalog of the 105 objects selected for display by The Committee for the Preparation of Exhibitions of Archaeological Relics, People's

Republic of China, accompanied by spendid color photographs, introductory essays, and maps. For the purposes of this review, the

principal catalog will be discussed in detail, with the shorter one

mentioned more briefly at the end. The Chinese, consummate historians, also like to think of them

selves as a nation of archaeologists, and, if the recent series of

excavations carried out in China in the last decade or so are any indication, the epithet is well chosen. The objects selected for this

show, many recently excavated, serve as a prolegomenon to the art

products of China's early dynastic history, from the Shang dynasty ( 16th century- 14th century B.C. in the revised chronology) through the Han dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.). This period corresponds in

Western history roughly from the Babylonian kingdom to the decline of the Roman Empire.

The recent series of excavations has unearthed a wealth of

material from this period, and the exhibition offers a sample of new

vessel shapes, decorative programs, and regional variations. Full evaluation and rationalization of this most complex art history is

only beginning, both in China and the West, and conclusions cannot be drawn from such a small selection, but the exhibition

and the catalog do offer a fine beginning for the appreciation of

early Chinese history and the art forms it includes.

Aspects of the study of the exhibition materials are discussed in a series of essays in the catalog written by a group of principally American scholars and students of Chinese archaeology and his

tory. The Chinese viewpoint, however, is established in a summary

(p. 374-376) prepared by the Committee for the Preparation of Exhibitions of Archaelogical Relics. In the summary, the Commit tee presents its views on the exhibition material and takes issue

with specific points raised in the essays. Remarkably free of the rhetoric which usually plagues publications from the PRC, the

summary provides an interesting counterpoint to the prevailing views of the catalogs text.

The strength of the catalog, however, lies in its pictorial con tents. Every object receives a color plate, some half-page, many

full-page. These are enhanced with superb close-up views of details such as decorative motifs, sculptural detailing, and a most useful record of the surface quality of many of the bronzes. Smaller black-and-white illustrations with most of the catalog entries include rubbings of details and inscriptions on the vessels, and

rubbings of some of the jade pieces. Two frustrations with the catalog are the use of Pinyin, a fact of

life for most writing on China, but still an irritation for those used to the Wade-Giles system, and the bibliography. Though it con tains much of the recent Chinese source material and a most

helpful list of excavation site reports, it appears to be light on some

important contributions, particularly in the area of influence on and by Central Asia. Also missing are citations of historical Chi nese texts, though these are referred to in the essays. Although it can be argued that the most recent bibliography is the most rele vant, art history is an accretive discipline. It would also have been

interesting to have a checklist of the ancient sources the Chinese themselves are referring to. Both these complaints are relatively

minor, and there are extensive footnotes to fill in some of the

bibliographic lacunae.

There is little doubt that The Great Bronze Age of China will become a standard reference, and it is an imperative purchase for

any library with a serious commitment to Asian art and history. For those with smaller exchequers or less commitment, a high recommendation is given for the smaller catalog, Treasures from the Bronze Age of China which includes the color photographs, brief summaries derived from the longer essays, maps, and brief entries for each of the objects in the exhibition. At $9.95, this could be one of the best art book purchases of the year.

Kathy Haskins, Art Institute of Chicago

PRIMITIVE UKIYO-E FROM THE JAMES A. MICHENER COLLECTION IN THE HONOLULU ACADEMY OF ARTS/ Howard A. Link; with the assistance of Juzo Suzuki and Roger S. Keyes.?Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1980.?322 p.: ill. (some col.).?ISBN 0-8248-0483-X: $55.00

This catalog of selected Japanese woodblock prints from the James Michener collection covers single leaf broadsheets and illus trated popular fiction from the 1660*s through 1760's which are

generally referred to as primitive prints. The entire book is

arranged by artist family, with a brief descriptions of the style and contributions of each, followed by illustrations and separate catalog entries for the prints ofthat artist, family or school. Entries include title, date, measurements and coloring, signature and seals,

publisher, condition, provenance, documentation, commentary, and attribution. Certain categories of information are particularly useful though they are often omitted in collection or exhibition

catalogs. They include: 1) the description of condition to help the student of prints gain a sense of connoisseurship, 2) suggested attributions based on comparisons between unsigned broadsheets and signed illustrated books, and 3) commentary which explains not only the identification of the scene but how the assignment was made. A thorough two-page glossary of Japanese terms and bibli

ography of Western and Japanese books updated to 1979 are

included, though no index is provided. Very little else has been written on the early period of Japanese

prints, and the 1971 exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, Ukiyo-e: Prints and Paintings, the Primitive Period, ?680-1745 was a landmark. Another book by Howard Link, The Theatrical Prints of the Torii Masters: A Selection of Seventeenth and Eight eenth Century Ukiyo-e (Tokyo, Honolulu Academy of Arts and

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