Through individual case studies involving the professions of sculptor, painter, potter, printmaker, and architect, this book addresses the question about what it meant to be an artist in Japan from the seventh century to the twentieth. How did artists go about their business? What degree of control did they exercise over their metier? How were they viewed by society? How was the image of the artist fashioned in various periods? Throughout much of Japan's past, artists' thoughts about their activities have remained unrecorded. Some of the essays in this volume reveal how the machine of...