Rosina Buckland (National Museum of Scotland) and John Szostak (University of Hawaii at Manoa) would would like to announce publication of their books on modern Japanese painting, also part of Brill’s “Japanese Visual Culture” series.

Rosina Buckland, *Painting Nature for the Nation: Taki Katei and the Challenges to Sinophile Culture in Meiji Japan*
http://www.brill.com/painting-nature-nation

“Buckland offers an account of the career of the painter Taki Katei (1830–1901). Drawing on a large body of previously unpublished paintings, collaborative works and book illustrations by this highly successful, yet neglected, figure, Buckland traces how Katei transformed his art and practice based in modes derived from China in order to fulfill the needs of the modern nation-state at large-scale exhibitions and at the imperial court. She provides a rare examination of the vibrant world of Chinese-inspired culture during the 1880s, and the hostility which it faced in the following decade.”

John D. Szostak, *Painting Circles: Tsuchida Bakusen and Nihonga Collectives in Early Twentieth Century Japan*
http://www.brill.com/painting-circles-tsuchida-bakusen-and-nihonga-collectives-early-twentieth-century-japan

“Painting Circles addresses the changing professional milieu of artists in early 20th century Japan, particularly the development of new social roles and networks, and how these factors informed the development of artistic identity. The focus of the study is the Nihonga painter Tsuchida Bakusen (1887-1936), who in 1918 founded an exhibition collective, the Kokuga Society, in response to increasing dissatisfaction with the nation’s government-sponsored exhibition salon. The study examines efforts by Bakusen and company to establish an independent position vis-à-vis the arts establishment by demonstrating their reflexive knowledge of Western modernist art movements on the one hand, and on the other, by showing their deep commitment to preserving traditional Japanese painting themes, media and techniques into the 20th century.”