Arizona State University Art Museum, 02/01/2013-05/25/2013

Beautiful landscapes, pottery designs, a shipwrecked sailor’s view of Russia, tales of good and evil, the construction of Samurai warriors’ armor and weapons, the care of horses, Christianity and Buddhism are topics included in the 17th – 20th-century manuscripts and objects on loan from the Melikian Collection.

These fragmented records, traces of Japanese life, have been a resource for study by art history seminar students guided by Claudia Brown, professor at the School of Art, and Jean Makin, print collections manager at the ASU Art Museum, both of which are in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at ASU. The students translated passages of hand-written or printed script to identify who wrote or drew these items and to learn more about why they were created and what their purpose was.