The Art Appreciation of Japanese Sword Fittings by Shigeo Fukushi. High quality pictures with long descriptions in English and Japanese.
This amazing book has high quality pictures of 320 items arranged by subject. First we have 82 items with Chinese or Indian theme, then 99 Japanese theme ones, 34 with animals, 32 plants and 22 others.
On top of that there are long descriptions in English. First part of the description has information about theme of the item and maker.
Second part that is usually much longer tells us more about the theme of the piece, its meaning or story behind it.
This is a great reference book with a majority of most popular subjects depicted on sword fittings.
Only downside of this book is that there are not enough information about makers of the fittings. To know more additional literature is reacquired. I recommend Markus Sesko "Toso-kinko Schools", "Genealogies of Japanese tsuba and toso-kinko Artists" of the same author or Haynes Index.
Condition: New
Number of Pages: 417
Dimensions: 25.7 x 18.5 x 3.0 cm
Weight (before packing): 1359 g
Release Year : 2012
Language : Japanese & English
Country/Region of Manufacture : Japan