Illusory Dwellings: Aesthetic Meditations in Kyoto

(Paperback)

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Essays on the nature, production, and presentation of art, craft, and architecture in Japan, inspired by the authors experiences in Kyoto.

Illusory Dwellingsis not a guide concerning what to see in Kyoto, but a philosophical meditation on how to travel and observe in this capital of traditional Japanese art. Both intimate and scholarly, the book accompanies the reader on visits to famed gardens like Ryan-ji, investigates the complex symbolism of the tea ceremony and the important role of the tea room, reveals the beauty of Japanese cuisine, and delves into the world of contemporary ceramics. It also provides context for the tensions and harmony between traditional and modern forms of art and craft in Kyoto and throughout Japan, and contrasts these with how they are received at home versus their treatment by Western museums in modernist contexts. Altogether this is an erudite and provocative analysis of artist and observer, a book to shape the readers aesthetic worldview and provide numerous oc

Reviews

Reviews of the French edition

"This work, which deals with the place of handicrafts (the importance of potters as artists) in museums, tableware in restaurants, and the symbolism of bells, is an indispensable cultural [handbook] for immersing oneself in all that Kyoto can exude in its beauty and truth. Remarkable!--Parenthse

It is only in a next step that a reader, after having fulfilled his tourist duties iand visited all the places 'to see,' will deepen his journey and knowledge of Japanese aesthetics through this work, which is full of subtle analyses and information on concepts familiar to Japanologists and more especially to all those who think about the confrontations between the perception of art and beauty, in the West and the East.--Ren de Ceccatty, in Les Lettres francaises

Fundamental notions are approached with such precision and refinement that we are dazzled and enriched by this instructive and passionate reading.--Lucien d Azay, in Revue des Deux Mondes

Reviews of other works by Allen S. Weiss

This is a brilliant, almost hallucinatory, revelation of landscape architecture--its profoundly metaphysical origins, its transfixing history, and its virtually infinitizing future. . . . Weiss has raised our understanding of the garden to an exponentially higher level.--Professor David B. Allison, State University of New York at Stony Brook, in praise of Unnatural Horizons

Weiss himself is a genuine aficionado. He writes with knowledge and enthusiasm about many aspects of Japanese aesthetics.--Crafts magazine, in praise of The Grain of the Clay: Reflections on Ceramics and the Art of Collecting

The first in-depth Western study that looks at the relationship that exists between gardens and ceramics, suggesting new theories of representation and, above all, presenting ideas that may change the way we view such places.--Japan Times, in praise of Zen Landscapes: Perspectives on Japanese Gardens and Ceramics

Author Bio

Allen S. Weissis the author and editor of over forty books in the fields of performance theory, landscape architecture, gastronomy, sound art, experimental theater, and ceramics. He has written extensively on Japanese culture, includingZen Landscapes: Perspectives on Japanese Gardens and Ceramics(Reaktion Books) and The Grain of the Clay: Reflections on Ceramics and the Art of Collecting(Reaktion Books), as well asLe got de Kyoto(Mercure de France) andGuide anachronique de Kyoto(ditions Arla). He has been the recipient of Fulbright, Japan Society, and tant donn grants, and is Distinguished Teacher in the departments of Performance Studies and Cinema Studies in the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.