The 100th Anniversary of "Manifeste du surrealisme" - Surrealism and Japan

Andre Breton's 'Manifeste du surrealisme' marked the birth of one of the most widely influential art movements of the 20th century. Arriving in Japan in the late 1920s, surrealism first spread among young poets, who translated and experimented with surrealist verse, and later among painters such as Koga Harue and Fukuzawa Ichiro, who became noted for their fantastical, enigmatic imagery. By the 1930s the movement had made its way beyond Tokyo. The harsh realities of World War II and its militarist regime, however, cut short the movement just as it was starting to blossom. Focusing on paintings, this book surveys the full scope of Japanese surrealism from pre-war to post-war.