Lacquer Reading List

Japanese lacquer

Bourne, Jonathan et al Lacquer: An International History and Collector's Guide. Crowood Press, Marlborough, Wiltshire, 1984

An historical survey of Japanese lacquerware up to the present day. The glossary contains errors. ISBN. 0946284458

Boyer, Martha, Catalogue of Japanese Lacquers. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, 1970. Valuable for its generous selection of reproductions, though only in black and white

Bushell, Raymond, The Inro Handbook. Weatherhill, New York and Tokyo, 1979. ISBN. 0834801353

Earle, Joe, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Japanese Art; , Meiji no Takara, Treasures of Imperial Japan: Shibata Zeshin, The Kibo Foundation, London, 1996. ISBN. 1874780080

Earle, Joe Genji Meets Yang Guifei: A Group of Japanese Export Lacquers. Transactions of the Oriental Ceramics Society, Volume 47, 1982-1983, pp. 45-75

Earle, Joe'What Shall We Do About Japanese Lacquer? A Selection of Edo Period Lacquers. Orientations, Vol.17, No.12, December 1986, pp.53-60

Garner, Sir Harry, Ryukyu Lacquer. Percival David Foundation Monograph no. 1, Percival David Foundation, London, 1972

Important pioneering study of lacquer, work of the Ryukyu islands, which is related to the Chinese and Japanese traditions

Hauge, Victor & Takoko, Folk Traditions in Japanese Art. Kodansha International, Tokyo, New York and San Francisco, 1978. Exhibition catalogue including a section on folk lacquers.

Heckman, Gunther, Urushi no Waza, Japanese Lacquer Technology, Nihon Art Publishers, Ellwangen, 2002. ISBN. 3980575527

Herberts, K., Oriental Lacquer, Art and Technique. Thames and Hudson, London, 1962. The most useful section is a list of technical terms. Comprehensive rather than critical, but it provides a basis for research

Hutt, Julia, Japanese Inro, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 1997. A comprehensive work on the subject incorporating the latest research, illustrated mostly by works in the V&A. ISBN. 1851772146

Hutt, Julia, Inro Decoration: Its Individual Character, in Artistic Personality and Decorative Style in Japanese Art, Colloquies on Art and Archaeology in Asia, No. 6, Percival David Foundation, University of London, 1976. An exposition of the distinctive style of decoration found on inro as opposed to other lacquer objects

Hutt, Julia, Japanese Lacquer Painting, in Lacquerwork in Asia and Beyond, Colloquies on Art and Archaeology in Asia, No. 11, Percival David Foundation, University of London, 1982. Good introduction to a neglected subject, the application of lacquer designs by painting rather than sprinkling

Hutt, Julia Highlights of Meiji and Taisho Period Lacquerware in the V&A Museum. Oriental Art, Vol.XLIV, No.2, Summer, 1998, pp.24-27

Hutt, Julia A Japanese Lacquer Chest in the V&A: A Seventeenth-Century Wedding Casket for the Dutch market. Apollo, Vol.CXLVII, No.433, March 1998, pp.3-9

Hutt, Julia A Japanese Export Lacquer Chest in the Victoria and Albert Museum: Some Further Observations. Apollo, Vol.CXLIX, No.445, March 1999, pp.22-24

Hutt, Julia East and West in Japanese Export Lacquerware: Some Problem Pieces in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Ostasiatische und Europäische Lacktechniken, East Asian and European Lacquer Techniques. Munchen, 2000, pp.19-26

Hutt, Julia The Mazarin Chest Project: Japanese export lacquer in the Victoria & Albert Museum. Arts of Asia, Volume 35, No.5, September-October 2005, pp.101-106

Impey, Oliver, Japanese Export Lacquer of the 17th Century in Lacquerwork in Asia and Beyond,Colloquies on Art and Archaeology in Asia, No. 11, Percival David Foundation, University of London, 1982. A survey of the present state of knowledge of this subject, with an attempt at a chronological framework.

Koizumi, Kazuko, Traditional Japanese Furniture, Kodansha International Ltd., Tokyo, New York, San Francisco, 1986. ISBN. 087011722x

Okada, Jo and others, Nihon no shitsugei (Lacquer Art of Japan). Six volumes, Chuokoronsha, Tokyo, 1978. These books are in Japanese, but are of great importance for several hundred first-class colour reproductions covering the history of lacquerware in Japan, from earliest times to the end of the Meiji period. There is an English list of captions at the end of each volume.

Pekarik, Andrew J., Japanese Lacquer, 1600-1900. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1980.
In form of a catalogue of the Greenfield collection, but actually a book about the lacquer of the Edo period. The introduction is one of the best works written on any of the craft traditions of the Edo period, showing a profound knowledge of the literary, economic and social backgrounds. ISBN. 0870992473

Von Rague, B, A History of Japanese Lacquerwork. University of Toronto Press, 1976. Authoritative general history based on extensive research in Japan. The 19th and 20th centuries are treated rather summarily.

Strange, E.F., Catalogue of Japanese Lacquer (in the V&A), volume I General, HMSO, London, 1924.
Hopelessly inaccurate and out of date, but the only catalogue currently available.

Strange, Edward FCatalogue of Japanese Lacquer (in the V&A), Part II. Medicine Cases (Inro). HMSO, London, 1925

Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art, Lacquer Art of Modern Japan. Tokyo, 1979. Excellent bilingual catalogue of 20th century lacquerwork.

Watson, William (ed), The Great Japan Exhibition, Art of the Edo Period, 1600-1868. Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1981. Includes a good selection of lacquerware of the Momoyama and Edo periods, with extensive commentary.

Wrangham, E.A., The Index of Inro Artists. Harehope Publications, Alnwick, Northumberland, 1995.
A comprehensive study of inro and lacquer craftsmen, with many signatures illustrated. ISBN. 0952519445

Yonemura, Ann, Japanese Lacquer. Freer Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., 1979