It's difficult to find a label that fits photographer Yasuhiro Ishimoto (1921-2012). Was he "Japanese" because he had Japanese parents and eventually chose to live in Japan as a Japanese citizen? Or was he "Japanese-American," given that he was born in the United States and indeed imprisoned during World War II in an internment camp for Japanese-Americans? Perhaps it's best to describe Ishimoto as a photographer with ties to both countries who carried important ideas back and forth across the ocean, in the process becoming a recognized and influential force in modern photography. more...

As the Meiji era (1868-1912) ushered in an unprecedented level of interaction with western society, Japanese crafts were eagerly purchased by foreigners and sent abroad as export items. Not only crafted arts such as ceramics and cloisonne, but furniture made by Japanese artisans also displayed superior workmanship that was well received and consequently exported. While the smaller crafts might have been imported and admired within western homes without any alteration, larger scaled furniture items were sometimes adjusted to suit the functional needs of their new environment. more...