Japanese Style: A Little Style Book

by Suzanne Slesin, Stafford Cliff, Daniel Rozensztroch

Beginning with French Style. Suzanne Slesin and her coauthors created an acclaimed series of high-quality color books that focused on international areas of cultural and domestic interest. The Little Style Books revisit this classic material in a new and reinvigorated format.

Snappy anti appealing. The Little Style Books contain pictures anti text from the original edition selected and reorganized to highlight what is quintessential about the style of the country. The chapter on Living, for example, is filled with ideas for arranging rooms, placing furniture, lighting the Cooking chapter shows not only how other people live, but how our kitchens might be adapted.

A treasure trove of ideas, this is indeed the essence of style.

Genres: Japan, Architecture, Nonfiction, Design, Interior Design, Art, Japanese Literature

205 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Kris · Rating 5 out of 5]

[1987] "By necessity, they have turned the child's gift of make-believe into an art at which they excel. To live in Japan entirely bereft of one's childhood sense of play is to miss all the fun."

"Words like shibui, sabi, and wabi... Literally they mean astringent, rustic, and lonely, yet these translations are open to endless dispute."

"...a Japanese room, composed of an astonishing number of straight lines and right angles, whatever its size, is best observed seated on the floor. From this vantage point, the lines seem to radiate from us."

"Without effort, the eye will find its way to the tokonoma - the alcove of honor - where an arrangement of flowers displayed in a vase call attention to itself as the only curving lines in the room. Thus, asking no questions, we have discovered for ourselves the importance of flower arrangement in a Japanese interior." (p. ix)

"In traditional Japan, the art of interior decorating depends on a heightened sensitivity to the seasons, the personality and interests of the guest of honor, and the nature of the social occasion... As a final touch, incense..."

"Modern Japanese interiors are perhaps best seen as a product of the twofold Japanese character - the playful versus the serious, the loud versus the quiet, the child as opposed to the adult, and above all the novelty of make-believe played out against the restraining weight of how-things-have-always-been." (p. x)

"Simplicity, functionality, and minimalism - three of the most important elements of Japanese design..."

"In Japan, privacy is sacrosanct... "solitude is a status symbol." Entertaining nearly always takes place outside the home, and requests to visit someone's living place are usually responded to with polite refusals." (p. 1)

"Nearly every interior we saw in Japan [c. 1987], with the exception of the rigorously traditional, suggested the tug-of-war between traditionalism and modernism, between the East and the West." (p. 2)

"The architect manipulates natural light in order to create a constant sense of the natural world as it changes and affects both the exterior and interior spaces of the house." (p. 34)

"Making the most of a small space is a talent of Japanese city dwellers... "A Japanese can make a whole life in a small space."... Discipline and neatness are prime requirements, as is a willingness to live with only the essentials in multipurpose rooms, where futons are brought out of closets or chests to sleep on at night." (p. 191)

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of those cute little photo books that can be used for reference but now I would be tempted to hunt for these sorts of images online.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book on Japanese style. I learned a lot about real estate in Japan (did you know houses in major cities are numbered by the date they were built and not numerically in order on the street?) and how to create an open-feeling house in a very small space. There are some very cutting-edge ideas and solutions in this book--have a house made of concrete? line the walls with goose down panels for warmth. Have a tiny yard? fill it with a koi pond. Some designs are extremely traditional but nearly every house included a tea room and a changing seasonal display of some type. The wide-planked wood floors in nearly every home were gorgeous and spotlessly clean. In fact, everything was spotlessly clean and organized. Given the fact this book was published in 1987, the houses are surprisingly undated, except for the very modernistic black/white/gray steel and concrete designs.

Noticeably missing from all the homes were computers. I am not sure if many people owned personal computers in Japan in 1987, or if they hide them, or if they were used mostly in a business setting. Perhaps computers in 1987 were simply too big for these small living spaces. I assume it has since changed, but I found it very calming.

[Ysabet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this book. The photography seemed very good, and it showed some very interesting houses, but I think I went into it expecting it to look at more ordinary homes than it did. There were a few, but most of the houses showcased were custom-designed by various artists and architects to match very specific aesthetics. It was fun to look at, but I'd still be interested in seeing more typical homes that combine traditional Japanese and "modern" Western styles and designs.

[Deborah Parker]

Prefer Japan style for style of homes featured. Some useful info on importance Japanese place on materials.