This book challenges the perception of Japan as a 'copying culture' through a series of detailed ethnographic and historical case studies.

It addresses a question about why the West has had such a fascination for the adeptness with which the Japanese apparently assimilate all things foreign and at the same time such a fear of their skill at artificially remaking and automating the world around them. Countering the idea of a Japan that deviously or ingenuously copies others, it elucidates the history of creative exchanges with the outside world and the particular myths, philosophies and concepts which are emblematic of the origins and originality of copying in Japan. The volume demonstrates the diversity and creativity of copying in the Japanese context through the translation of a series of otherwise loosely related ideas and concepts into objects, images, texts and practices of reproduction, which include: shamanic theatre, puppetry, tea utensils, Kyoto town houses, architectural models, genres of painting, calligraphy, and poetry, 'sample' food displays, and the fashion and car industries.

About the Author

Rupert Cox is Lecturer in Visual Anthropology, Director of the MA programme at the Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology, University of Manchester, UK. He is the author of The Zen Arts: An anthropological study of the culture of aesthetic form in Japan (Routledge, 2002).

Reviews

"This is anexcellent survey detailing Japanese learning and the transmission of, especially, 'traditional' knowledge by and for East Asianists in the arts and humanities." - Mitchell W. Sedgwick, Oxford Brookes University, Journal of the Royal Astronomical Institute, Issue 16:3

Book Information
ISBN 9780415545396
Author Rupert Cox
Format Paperback
Page Count 288
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 530g