The Floating World, rev. ed.

by James A. Michener and Howard A. Link

Book Overview

The Floating World by novelist James A. Michener is a classic work on the Japanese print of the Edo period (1615-1868). Mr. Michener shows how the Japanese printmakers, cut off from revivifying... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0824808738
• Release Date: February 1984
• Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
• Length: 472 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.0" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Interesting read for the Japanese prints aficionado

I enjoy reading this book. Feels like befriending Mitchener on a topic we both seemed to have been fascinated with.

Another hit

This is the definitive study of the ukiyo-e masters and the Japanese prints of the Edo era, it makes you wonder how one man can know so much about so many different things. Michener is a leader in the field of everything!!

Floating Prose

As is typical with Michener, not only does he manage to tell a great story, but somehow he squeezes in the whole universe: all the people, their thoughts, actions, backgrounds, lives, and histories of their country, art, styles, artists, etc., involved in this tale of the art world all the way from the dawn til he lifted his pen from the page.This is the definitive study of the ukiyo-e masters and the Japanese prints of the Edo era. It details things print by print, artist by artist. An amazing work. No wonder, as Howard Link mentions in his forward, that people were so impressed with Michener's command of this subject that he was literally given entire collections of fantastic ancient Japanese artwork. This chronicles why Michener became the world's premiere collector and savior of the ukiyo-e masterpieces. It also makes abundantly clear why Michener is a master of prose much like the artists he loved were masters of this unique block and ink medium.Thomas