Arthur Tress and the Japanese Illustrated Book: A Celebration - Symposium

Orrery Pavilion in the Kislack Center, Van Pelt Library

Hybrid format  

In 2018 acclaimed photographer Arthur Tress donated over 1200 titles, including many rare volumes from the late 1700s to the 1930s, ranging across artist books, kyōka poetry, erotica, and design, among others, to the Penn Libraries’ Kislak Center. In this symposium scholars will discuss the world of Japanese books and collecting. Programming will include a workshop, pop-up viewings of selected materials, a conversation with the collector, and the opening of the exhibit "Arthur Tress and the Japanese Illustrated Book." The keynote will be delivered by Peter Kornicki, Emeritus Professor of Japanese Studies, Cambridge University, author of The Book in Japan: A Cultural History from the Beginnings to the Nineteenth Century and Eavesdropping on the Emperor.  

Major sponsorship by the Japan Foundation, with co-sponsorship by Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, the Center for East Asian Studies, Penn History of Art, and the School of Arts and Sciences Faculty Working Group. 

For more on the collection, see: web.sas.upenn.edu/tressjapanese/ 

For more information and registration for the symposium see https://web.sas.upenn.edu/tressjapanese/symposium-2022/