A Japanese Art Journey: A Curator's Memoir of Polka Dot Pumpkins, Paper Dolls and Woodblock Prints - Hardcover

by Meher McArthur (Author), Pico Iyer (Foreword by)

Passion, Art, and Identity: A Multicultural Memoir of Finding One's Place in the World

In this engaging memoir, Japanese art historian and curator Meher McArthur transports you into the extraordinary world of Japanese art -- from ceramics, swords, prints and textiles to Buddhist art, folk painting, contemporary art and animation. One artwork and one language lesson at a time, we follow McArthur as she unspools a compelling narrative of curiosity and inspiration, personal and cultural growth, with heartbreak and resilience. This book will provide avid art lovers new ways of seeing and understanding the power of art, not only to inspire but to illuminate one's place in the world.

The author presents her art memoir in three parts:

Discovering and Learning
Growing up in a small Scottish town as a multiracial child, McArthur often felt culturally out of place. Encouraged by her Persian and Scottish parents to embrace a global identity, she studied Japanese at Cambridge, eventually moving to Japan--where she fell in love with its language, temples, ceramics, and art traditions. Just as she found her passion, family upheaval challenged her sense of direction.

Becoming a Curator
With a master's degree in Japanese art, McArthur forged a path as a museum curator in California, organizing exhibitions on folk art, sake, ceramics, and Buddhist calligraphy--while learning the rhythms of museum life and starting a family.

Curating Beyond the Museum
Stepping away from the museum world, she became an independent curator, exploring new creative territory through origami, anime, and contemporary art--discovering fresh ways to connect with audiences and with herself.

Spanning continents and cultures, this is both an inspiring art memoir and a resonant reflection on cultural belonging. McArthur's story offers a warm, generous vision of how art can illuminate identity and bridge difference--inviting readers to fall in love with Japanese art and culture, and to embrace the idea that there's no single way to belong in the world.

Author Biography

Meher McArthur has decades of experience as an Asian art historian and curator specializing Japanese art. With degrees from Cambridge University and London University's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), she has served as Curator of East Asian Art at Pacific Asia Museum, Creative Director for the Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden, Academic Curator for Scripps College and Art and Cultural Director for Japan House in Los Angeles. She has also taught courses in Asian art at the University of Southern California, Scripps College and Claremont Graduate University. She regularly lectures and trains docents at various museums in Southern California. For over a decade, McArthur has curated exhibitions for International Arts & Artists (IA&A) including Washi Transformed: New Expressions in Japanese Paper and Kimono: Garment, Canvas, and Artistic Muse. She also curated the exhibition Shiki: The Four Seasons in Japanese Art at the Sturt Haaga Gallery at Descanso Gardens. She lives in Pasadena, CA.

Foreword by Pico Iyer: A British-born essayist and novelist, educated at Eton, Oxford, and Harvard. Since 1987, he has been based in Western Japan, traveling everywhere from Bhutan to Easter Island and from North Korea to Los Angeles. He is the author of fifteen books, including the bestsellers The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise (Penguin Random House, 2023), A Beginner's Guide to Japan: Observations and Provocations (Random House, 2020) and The Art of Stillness: Adventures In Going Nowhere (Simon & Schuster, 2014). He has been a constant contributor for more than thirty years to Time, The New York Times, Harper's Magazine, the Los Angeles Times and more than 250 other periodicals worldwide. He has written the introductions to more than fifty other books, as well as screenplays, librettos and many liner-notes for Leonard Cohen. He speaks regularly everywhere from West Point to Davos and Shanghai to Bogota, and his four recent talks for TED have received more than ten million views.