BC. Laurence Binyon

6. Japanese Art. International Art Series. London: Unwin, 1909.

Demonstrates that among Western interpreters of Japanese art in the first decade of the century, Binyon alone stood alongside Fenollosa, whose Epochs of Chinese and Japanese Art (D10c), published posthumously, did not appear until 1911. Focuses primarily on the Kanô school, especially Masanobu (1434-1530), Motonobu (1476-1559), ‘Yeitoku’ (Eitoku, 1543-90), and Tanyû (1602-74), and demonstrates a remarkable knowledge of medieval Japanese art history, social and political history, and religion. Includes the first detailed discussion by a British writer of the Zen ‘mode of thought’ and its relation to art (see D16), and biographical notes about all major artists discussed. Alludes to Fenollosa’s Masters of Ukiyoe (D10a) in noting that Hokusai (Ap), Utamaro, Hiroshige (Ap) and others are ‘already familiar names in Europe’. A French edition appeared as L’art japonais (Paris: Librairie Artistique internationale, 1910), and a German edition as Japanische kunst (Berlin: Marquardt, 1912). See also 19.