Battle Royale! Japanese Art History
The book features the 21 battles of creativity in which Tsuji challenged Murakami who admires the intellectual as a mentor by posing essays on freewheeling old masters including Itō Jakuchū, Soga Shōhaku, and Nagasawa Rosetsu, and the Murakami responded by presenting new works of art corresponding to each essay respectively. The volume showcases a vibrant range of remarkable pieces by old and new creators including Murakami’s 100-meter epic painting “The 500 Arhats.” Each chapter (Round 1–21) starts with the boxing-round-card style number to emphasize “the battle feel” and new and old images side by side explains the references and relationship of the two images. Scholastic yet playful design reflects the lineage of Japanese art history and its eccentricity.

Lineage of Eccentrics: Matabei to Kuniyoshi, originally, published in 1988 by Perikansha Publishing, offered a reappraisal of the artistic practices of Iwasa Matabei, Kano Sansetsu, Ito Jakuchu, Soga Shohaku, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, artists who had been considered peripheral to Japanese art history up to that point.