Japanese

Start with the guide to the pieces themselves, the tansu chests and folding screens, then follow the rooms and traditions around them: the tatami room, Japonisme, and the quiet restraint of Japandi. For the craft of lacquer, read the guide to Japanese lacquerware.

Chawan: a Black Raku tea bowl, hand-molded earthenware with an opaque black glaze, early 17th century

Chawan: How to Read a Japanese Tea Bowl Before You Buy

Ceramics & PorcelainJapanese lacquerware: an eight-lobed incense box decorated with Chinese children playing with snowballs in gold maki-e

Japanese Lacquerware: How to Read a Maki-e Box Before You Buy

Decorative ArtsSatsuma ware incense burner: a cream, crackle-glazed round burner on three feet, with a domed openwork lid and a band of pierced lattice around the body

Satsuma Ware: Japanese Earthenware, Crackle Glaze and How to Read It

Ceramics & PorcelainKutani ware plate: round dark green plate painted with overlapping fans, one section in gold and yellow, with a ribbed rim

Kutani Ware: Ko-Kutani, the Five Colors and the Arita Question

Ceramics & PorcelainImari ware: large round dish with a dark blue rim studded with gilt and red medallions, and white panels painted with pine, plum blossom, red cloud bands and a wave

Imari Ware: How to Identify Japanese Imari Porcelain

Ceramics & PorcelainAntique Japanese porcelain plate painted mainly in blue and white, with a figure under a parasol at the center and a border of small panels and a fine pattern

Antique Japanese Porcelain: How to Tell Imari, Kakiemon and Nabeshima

Ceramics & PorcelainDark indigo kimono-shaped coverlet with long sleeves, a large pale-blue round crest at the chest and a painted spiny lobster tangled in rope below

The Japanese Bedroom: Tatami, Futon and a Room Built for Sleep

More in Japanese

Dark wooden cabinet with asymmetrical stepped shelves and small open compartments above, gold and red carved panels in the lower doors and a pierced brass grille at the centre

Japonisme: How Japanese Art and Design Reshaped Western Interiors

Tatami room in an Edo-period woodblock print: diners seated on green mats around low dishes, a window view of Mount Fuji at the left and a shoji panel at the right

The Tatami Room: How a Japanese Room Is Built and Used

Japanese folding screen of six gold-leaf panels showing colorful kimonos draped over a dark lacquered clothing rack, with a lacquer box and a stand on the floor

Japanese Folding Screens (Byobu): History, Types and What They Were For

FurnitureColour woodblock print of a man and a woman seated on the floor of a room, with a hanging scroll in an alcove behind them, a window at the right and lines of calligraphy at the left

Japanese Interior Design: Principles, Materials and How to Get the Look

Dark wooden chest with two tiers of louvered doors, a deep plank lid, iron hinges and a heavy base set on wheels

Japanese Furniture: Traditional Types, Woods and How They Were Used

FurnitureLacquered wood cabinet

The Quiet Power of Imperfect Rooms

Book cabinet with lacquered wood, gold and silver inlay

Restraint as Decoration

Nanban cabinet with lacquered wood, mother-of-pearl inlay, and gilt-bronze fittings

Complete Guide to Japandi and Wabi-Sabi

Elsewhere in the journal
French Art Deco furniture and decoration in Ruhlmann's small salon, 1925 colour plate: pale panelled walls edged in gilt, a tiered crystal chandelier, a gilded relief above a mirror, a dark desk with a slatted lid, a cream armchair and a round painted panel of birds before the fireplace

French Art Deco Furniture: Ruhlmann’s Pavilion at the 1925 Paris Exposition

Art Nouveau & Art DecoBaroque furniture: a tall state bed hung with blue silk damask, with a deep fringed canopy and curtains, shown in a dark museum gallery beside an upholstered armchair

Baroque Furniture: The Roman Baroque Bed

Baroque & RococoDark wooden cabinet with asymmetrical stepped shelves and small open compartments above, gold and red carved panels in the lower doors and a pierced brass grille at the centre

Japonisme: How Japanese Art and Design Reshaped Western Interiors

Asian ยท Japanese