We are currently sold out of this book. We hope to have more copies available in the future.

The Art Appreciation of Japanese Sword Fittings, Shigeo Fukushi, Heisei 24 nen (2012), published and printed in Japan. 10" X 7.25" (26 cm x 18 cm), 417 pages. Japanese Text with English captions and English index/Table of Contents. Stitched binding in a quality paper cover with glossy flyleaf, this book is the quality of a fine museum catalog.

$85 plus shipping

This beautifully photographed book lays out over 300 fittings including tsuba, menuki, kogai and kozuka, and fuchi/kashira. Each piece is documented as to school and artist, but the emphasis is on the content and meaning of the subject depicted on each piece. Each piece takes up one full page. There is a full Japanese text, but each caption is in English and Japanese and the English text offers a full explanation of the piece and its artistic context.

The pieces are arranged by theme into six sections:

1. Chinese and Indian Historical Stories and Fables
2. Japanese Historical Stories and Fables
3. Institutions and Customs
4. Animals
5. Plants
6. Others

Both the Japanese and English Table of Contents are a page by page list of each item, so it is fairly easy to skim and find a particular subject or individual piece. There are several pages of lineages of artists and diagrams of kodogu following the main text. The highest recommendation i can give this book is that i have purchased a copy for myself.