Hiroyuki Suzuki is professor emeritus of Japanese art history at Tokyo Gakugei University. Maki Fukuoka is associate professor of the history of art at the University of Leeds.

"What a boon to now have available in English, in an expert translation, this study by Suzuki Hiroyuki, one of the most insightful art historians anywhere in the world. The ostensible subject is antiquarianism, but Suzuki makes clear that during the fast-paced metabolism of Japan in the 1870s, the terms "art" and "antique" are multiple and under constant revision. Situating them at the conjunction of East Asian modes of knowing, traditional modes of assembly, changing display practices, new reprographic technologies, and the professionalization of knowledge, Antiquarians of Nineteenth-Century Japan peers just under the surface of a more common narrative about the rise of art history in Japan. In doing so, it offers a thoughtful, richly detailed perspective on what art was before Art, on the eve of Nation."-Yukio Lippit, Jeffrey T. Chambers and Andrea Okamura Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University ; "At once descriptive and self-reflective, the book offers a compelling revisionist account of art history in modern Japan via the lives of objects, their collectors, and the bureaucracy of beauty."--Parul Dave-Mukherji, School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University; “Antiquarians of Nineteenth-Century Japan provides precisely the piece of modern Japanese art and cultural history that had been missing from the English-language corpus. Applying a Foucauldian framework to the generation of Japanese scholars who had been active prior to the Meiji Restoration, Suzuki reveals their profound contributions to, as well as their thought-provoking differences from, the modern, professionalized fields of art history and archaeology. The lucid translation by Maki Fukuoka will ensure that this book reaches a broad audience of scholars and students from art history, anthropology, the history of science, comparative global studies of knowledge formation, and beyond. In the company of Stephen Bann's The Clothing of Clio and Dipesh Chakrabarty's The Calling of History, Suzuki's work adds an important voice to the conversation on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century modes of knowing and writing about things past.” —Chelsea Foxwell, Associate Professor of Art History, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago

Hiroyuki Suzuki is professor emeritus of Japanese art history at Tokyo Gakugei University. Maki Fukuoka is associate professor of the history of art at the University of Leeds.

"What a boon to now have available in English, in an expert translation, this study by Suzuki Hiroyuki, one of the most insightful art historians anywhere in the world. The ostensible subject is antiquarianism, but Suzuki makes clear that during the fast-paced metabolism of Japan in the 1870s, the terms "art" and "antique" are multiple and under constant revision. Situating them at the conjunction of East Asian modes of knowing, traditional modes of assembly, changing display practices, new reprographic technologies, and the professionalization of knowledge, Antiquarians of Nineteenth-Century Japan peers just under the surface of a more common narrative about the rise of art history in Japan. In doing so, it offers a thoughtful, richly detailed perspective on what art was before Art, on the eve of Nation."-Yukio Lippit, Jeffrey T. Chambers and Andrea Okamura Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University ; "At once descriptive and self-reflective, the book offers a compelling revisionist account of art history in modern Japan via the lives of objects, their collectors, and the bureaucracy of beauty."--Parul Dave-Mukherji, School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University; “Antiquarians of Nineteenth-Century Japan provides precisely the piece of modern Japanese art and cultural history that had been missing from the English-language corpus. Applying a Foucauldian framework to the generation of Japanese scholars who had been active prior to the Meiji Restoration, Suzuki reveals their profound contributions to, as well as their thought-provoking differences from, the modern, professionalized fields of art history and archaeology. The lucid translation by Maki Fukuoka will ensure that this book reaches a broad audience of scholars and students from art history, anthropology, the history of science, comparative global studies of knowledge formation, and beyond. In the company of Stephen Bann's The Clothing of Clio and Dipesh Chakrabarty's The Calling of History, Suzuki's work adds an important voice to the conversation on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century modes of knowing and writing about things past.” —Chelsea Foxwell, Associate Professor of Art History, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago

Hiroyuki Suzuki is professor emeritus of Japanese art history at Tokyo Gakugei University. Maki Fukuoka is associate professor of the history of art at the University of Leeds.

"What a boon to now have available in English, in an expert translation, this study by Suzuki Hiroyuki, one of the most insightful art historians anywhere in the world. The ostensible subject is antiquarianism, but Suzuki makes clear that during the fast-paced metabolism of Japan in the 1870s, the terms "art" and "antique" are multiple and under constant revision. Situating them at the conjunction of East Asian modes of knowing, traditional modes of assembly, changing display practices, new reprographic technologies, and the professionalization of knowledge, Antiquarians of Nineteenth-Century Japan peers just under the surface of a more common narrative about the rise of art history in Japan. In doing so, it offers a thoughtful, richly detailed perspective on what art was before Art, on the eve of Nation."-Yukio Lippit, Jeffrey T. Chambers and Andrea Okamura Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University ; "At once descriptive and self-reflective, the book offers a compelling revisionist account of art history in modern Japan via the lives of objects, their collectors, and the bureaucracy of beauty."--Parul Dave-Mukherji, School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University; “Antiquarians of Nineteenth-Century Japan provides precisely the piece of modern Japanese art and cultural history that had been missing from the English-language corpus. Applying a Foucauldian framework to the generation of Japanese scholars who had been active prior to the Meiji Restoration, Suzuki reveals their profound contributions to, as well as their thought-provoking differences from, the modern, professionalized fields of art history and archaeology. The lucid translation by Maki Fukuoka will ensure that this book reaches a broad audience of scholars and students from art history, anthropology, the history of science, comparative global studies of knowledge formation, and beyond. In the company of Stephen Bann's The Clothing of Clio and Dipesh Chakrabarty's The Calling of History, Suzuki's work adds an important voice to the conversation on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century modes of knowing and writing about things past.” —Chelsea Foxwell, Associate Professor of Art History, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago