Aesthetic Life

“Possibly the most conceptually innovative and ambitious book on Meiji aesthetics and art to have been published in English in recent years… Without doubt, a major scholarly contribution to the understanding of Meiji culture. It sets a high benchmark for all future studies on the subject of modern Japanese aesthetics… Lippit has reenergized the subject of beauty as an important topic that has far-reaching cultural, social, and even political implications.”—Noriko Murai, Monumenta Nipponica

“Aesthetic Life is the result of extended and extensive scholarly research into the formation of the image of the bijin in modern Japanese art.”—Janice Brown, Pacific Affairs