Constructing Japan

Know about the book -

Constructing Japan is written by Beate Loeffler and published by BRILL. It's available with International Standard Book Number or ISBN identification 9004724176 (ISBN 10) and 9789004724174 (ISBN 13).

The influence of Japanese art and culture on art in late 19th-century Europe and America through collections of objects and knowledge transfer is already recognised. However, the research in this field often neglects architecture. This study takes a new approach, placing architecture at the centre. Through in-depth analysis of contemporary textual and visual sources, Beate Löffler shows how western actors from different backgrounds interpreted Japanese architecture as they experienced it, either face-to-face or via texts and images. It unveils a complex process of appropriation and rejection, of claim to interpretive sovereignty, and fascination with the foreign, that led to both new knowledge and cultural clichés.