FEATURED EVENT
LECTURE | MODERN JAPANESE DESIGN IN ZUANSHU PUBLISHING
Often translated as "design books," zuanshū (図案集) is a genre of
woodblock-printed publication that became popular in the Meiji era (1868-1912).
With bold compositions and vivid colors, they offered design inspirations for
textile production. This presentation will introduce a wide variety of patterns
and motifs from zuanshū and examine their place in Japanese publishing history
through examples from the Pulverer collection of Japanese illustrated books at the
Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art.
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Dr. Naoko Adachi
Japan Foundation Assistant Curator of Japanese Art
National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution
Naoko Adachi joined the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art
in 2025. Specializing in nineteenth-century Japanese prints, photographs, and
crafts, she is particularly interested in how Japanese identity is represented for
international audiences.
Adachi received her MA and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. She has previously
held positions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam,
and the Tokyo National Museum. In addition to her research on Meiji-era export objects,
she has worked extensively on cataloging the Arthur Tress Collection of Japanese Illustrated
Books from the seventeenth to twentieth centuries.
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