"The first Japanese objects entered Cleveland's collection a few decades after the country had been opened to the West, when much of Japan looked as it had for centuries, and as it does in the images reproduced in this book. Today Japan is one of the world's most advanced countries, and crowds and skyscrapers may seem to have replaced the temples and gardens, but Japanese culture retains the power to refresh and challenge the aesthetics of the West, as it has since the sixteenth century." "Throughout their history the Japanese have avidly appropriated the arts of other countries - the ceramics and bronze casting of Korea, the painting and sculpture of China - and made them their own. But the poetry of natural materials, the earthy humor of some of the most spiritual imagery, the dynamic use of "empty" space, and, above all, the constant theme of the relationship of nature and humankind are unique to Japan."--Jacket.