Showcasing Japan’s astonishingly varied culture of cute, this volume takes the reader on a dazzling and adorable visual journey through all things kawaii.
Although some trace the phenomenon of kawaii as far back as Japan’s Taisho era, it emerged most visibly in the 1970s when schoolgirls began writing in big, bubbly letters complete with tiny hearts and stars. From cute handwriting came manga, Hello Kitty, and Harajuku, and the kawaii aesthetic now affects every aspect of Japanese life. As colorful as its subject matter, this book contains numerous interviews with illustrators, artists, fashion designers, and scholars. It traces the roots of the movement from sociological and anthropological perspectives and looks at kawaii’s darker side as it morphs into gothic and gloomy iterations. Best of all, it includes hundreds of colorful photographs that capture kawaii’s ubiquity: on the streets and inside homes, on lunchboxes and airplanes, in haute couture and street fashion, in cafés, museums, and hotels.
Other titles like "Kawaii"
William Shakespeare
Romeo und Julia
Claudia Schiffer (dt.)
Harriet Quick
VOGUE: Schuhe
Helmut and Heidi Neumann
Textiles of India (engl.)
Stephanie Rosenthal
Yayoi Kusama
Campbell Addy
Feeling Seen
Raphael Gross, Lars Bang Larsen, Dorlis Blume, Alexia Pooth, Julia Voss, Dorothee Wierling
documenta. Politics and Art
Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss
Humboldt Forum
Olaf Breidbach
Ernst Haeckel
Matthew Israel
The Big Picture
Kira Uthoff
Ernst Haeckel: Kunstformen der Natur. Posterbuch mit 22 Postern
Interior
Alessandro Vezzosi
Leonardo da Vinci
Alessandra Mattanza
Street Art: Legendäre Künstler und ihre Visionen mit u.a. Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Swoon u.v.m.
Ole Wittmann
Christian Warlich. Tattoo Flash Book (dt./engl.)
John Zukowsky
Die Geschichte der Architektur
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie Berlin Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Alexander Calder: Minimal / Maximal (dt./engl.)
Timothy J. Clark, André Dombrowski, Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, Alma Egger, Sophie Eichner, Colin Harrison, Jelle Imkampe, David Misteli, Olga Osadtschy, Joachim Pissarro, Esther Rapoport, Valérie Sueur-Hermel, Kerstin Thomas, Christophe Duvivier, Josef Helfenstein
Camille Pissarro
Josef Straßer
50 Bauhaus Icons You Should Know
Pete Souza
Barack Obama
Biography
Manami Okazaki
MANAMI OKAZAKI has published many books on Japanese culture, art, crafts, and fashion, including Kimono Now and Kawaii! Japan’s Culture of Cute (both by Prestel). Her journalism has been featured in the Japan Times, Wall Street Journal, South China Morning Post, Lonely Planet, and other global media outlets. She lives in Japan.
More books from the author
