Anyone interested in embroidery or kimono will adore this book. The photographs. Can't describe the beauty of them. The centerpiece is a two page spread of sakura. Just because. If you know Japanese culture, you'll understand. If not, you'll still be astonished by the cherry blossom. The author describes her inspiration, the stories behind her designs, how she studied. Each page of this book makes me swoon. The complexity of her embroidery, her color choices and design decisions. Museum quality fine art. I buy few books because I read so many, but once I got this one from the library, I decided I had have my own copy. It's very reasonably priced for an art book. This is a volume you will treasure and pass on to your grandchildren. I have a Japanese grandchild. I can't wait for her to be old enough to look at the pictures with me. Read more
First off: this is NOT a how-to book. This book is a photo collection of works done by a master of Japanese Embroidery. The photos provide high quality, stunningly clear examples of her works. I find the examples to be a great reference and that they should serve as inspiration. This is in short a pretty 'art book' full of AMAZING Embroidery. Def something to have for your coffee table or bookself if you enjoy traditional Japanese culture or just art. Read more
This is a nice book with beautiful and quality photos. I keep on coffee table Read more
You don't need to be a textile expert or an art historian to appreciate this book. The intricacies of the embroidery, the tale behind the image, and the supreme attention to detail are demonstrated extremely well through the photography and minimal text. As with many other crafts, this type of embroidery is bound to become a lost art and should not be forgotten when machines take over. Read more
this is a beautiful book with wonderful illustrations, the standard of photos is exceptional the embroidery is outstanding and a joy to look at Read more
I was ambivalent about how many stars to give this book. If what you're looking for is a book full of beautiful pictures of beautiful kimonos and obi with breathtaking finished embroidery done by a master embroiderer, then I imagine this book is a five star book. But that's not what I was looking for. I was looking for a book that offered Japanese embroidery designs and motifs that I could use in my own hand embroidery. What I typed into Amazon's search engine was "Japanese embroidery designs" and this book came up. The "Search Inside" feature for the book offers pictures that could and did lead me to think that I would find patterns for what I was looking at, and the book's title doesn't dissuade one from thinking that. This is a coffee table book, showcasing, with excellent photography, the extraordinary talents of Shizuka Kusano. I wrote this review so that others who might be looking for designs, motifs, or patterns might not also be disappointed by buying a book that is not what they expected it to be. Read more
It arrived superbly packaged and was just as described. Read more
I wanted to learn how to do this kind of embroidery as I am now disabled and housebound. All this book does is show pictures of kimonos, nothing whatever about how to do the work. Very disappointed as it was expensive. Read more
