A Thousand and One Nights: The Art of Folklore, Literature, Poetry, Fashion & Book Design of the Islamic World (PIE × Hiroshi Unno Art Series) (Japanese Edition) Paperback – September 20, 2017

This is one of several beautiful art books, edited by Hiroshi Unno and published by PIE International, featuring romantic illustrations done by European artists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. More than 300 pieces are reproduced in full color (if they were in color to start with) and, mostly, at full-page size. Except for single-paragraph biographies of the artists, all the text is in Japanese.European artists and consumers of the period in question were fascinated by the exotic worlds of the Middle East and Asia, and “Orientalist” paintings and designs were wildly popular in books and magazines, fashion, and the theater. This book features illustrations for various editions of The Thousand and One Nights, but it also contains illustrations for The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and samples of magazine pictures, fashion illustrations, and designs for theater sets and costumes. Artists represented include Edmund Dulac, Kay Neilsen, Erte, and a number of less well known figures, among them several women.The current politically-correct stance would probably write off all this work as “Colonialist,” and it’s unquestionably true that most of the artists drew more on their imaginations than on actual knowledge of the cultures they claimed to portray. On the other hand, the stories they illustrated were fantasies, full of kings and princesses and magical potions; they were not intended as portrayals of daily life, even by their original tellers. Furthermore, the flat perspective, elaborate designs in clothing and architecture, and brilliant colors used by the European artists in fact were quite compatible with the style of actual Persian art, as is shown by a small sample included in this book. I strongly recommend this book to all lovers of traditional fantasy art.

I love this series of books from Japan, even if the design work on them is often so over the top the illustrations they're supposed to highlight suffer somewhat. Also, much of the text is, as you may have guessed, in Japanese, though there are English passages. No matter the drawbacks, these books always have images you're just not going to find anywhere else, and this book of Orientalist illustrations isn't about Islamic art as much as it is about what famous illustrators made of popular tales. Many early 20th century pieces I've never seen before. These books are also at a great price, so I would collect all of them, they're quite nice.

A great quality book. The dust cover has beautiful texture with blue foiling. It has content in both Japanese and English. You're bound to learn something new and you can enjoy all the gorgeous artwork in it as well. Wonderful for references whether you're a fan of Arabic history, design influence, art noveau or fantastical art.

This is a lovely book and will make a wonderful gift.

It is in Japanese, so while the illustrations are beautiful, cannot read the stories.