青幻舎 SEIGENSHA Art Publishing

From Celtic Ireland in the west to the Aomori region of Japan in the east, a vast universe of motifs and ornamentation spreads across the whole of the Eurasian continent. In this volume, eight chapters of rich illustrations and commentary survey the illuminated manuscripts, works of art and craft, and other varied facets making up this wondrous cosmos. Humans have been called Homo sapiens (“the wise”), Homo faber (“the maker”), and Homo ludens (“the player”); to those names we may add one more—Homo ornatus, “the ornamental being.” Take a great journey back to the wellsprings of humanity’s artistic endeavors as ornamental beings, with Mayumi Tsuruoka, a leading expert on decorative art, as your guide.

Partial contents
Chapter 1. Celtic Illuminated Manuscripts: The Amazing Microcosm—Ornaments and Letters That Transcend Christianity and Paganism
Chapter 2. The Chance Meeting of Shiko Munakata and Celtic Patterns: The Density of the North
Chapter 3. The Vitality and Magic of Ornament in Folklore and Shamanism: Ethnic Arts and Crafts of Northeast Asia and Central Eurasia
Chapter 4. A Sacred Path of Spirits: The Power of Religious Figurines
Chapter 5. Mystic Spirals in Jomon Japan and Megalithic Ireland: Prehistoric Ornament of Eastern and Western Euro-Asia
Chapter 6. Decoration/Ornament as Vitalism: Wajiro Kon’s Graduation Project as His Point of Origin
Chapter 7. Ezonishiki (Chinese/Manchu Brocade) and the Northern Silk Road: Northern Peoples’ Trade and Ornamentation
Chapter 8.Nebuta: Giant Lanterns of Prayer—The Dragons & Clouds and the Triskeles That Connect the World of Euro-Asia
Includes a conversation between Mayumi Tsuruoka and architect Jun Aoki

Art anthropologist Mayumi Tsuruoka is professor emerita at Tama Art University. She completed graduate studies at Waseda University and studied at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. She has held professorships at Tohoku University of Art and Design, at Ritsumeikan University, and at Tama Art University, where she also headed the Institute of Art Anthropology and the university museum. Specializing in Celtic art and culture and the history of Euro-Asian life-design exchange, she has researched the decorative cultures and motifs of peoples from Ireland, central Eurasia, and Siberia to the Japanese archipelago.
　Tsuruoka’s major publications include Keruto/soshokuteki shiko (Celtic/Ornamental Thought; Chikuma Shobo, 1989), Soshoku suru tamashii (The Ornamental Soul; Heibonsha, 1997), Soshoku no shinwagaku (The Mythology of Ornamentation; Kawade Shobo Shinsha, 2000), Keruto bijutsu (Celtic Art; Chikuma Shobo, 2001), Sugu wakaru Yoroppa no soshoku mon’yo (Instant Guide to European Ornamental Patterns; Tokyo Bijutsu, 2013), Keruto saisei no shiso (The Celtic Philosophy of Rebirth; Chikuma Shobo, 2017), Soshoku dezain o yomitoku 30 no sutori (Ornamental Design in 30 Episodes; Nihon Vogue-sha, 2018), and Uzumaki no geijutsu jinruigaku: Shi to saisei no supairaru (The Art Anthropology of the Spiral: Death and Rebirth; Seidosha, 2025). Her major translations into Japanese include The Book of Kells and The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe by Marija Gimbutas. She also introduced Celtic and Japanese ornamental art in the documentary films Gaia Symphony No. 1 (1992) and Ripples of Physis (2024).