Subject Guides: Asian Art: Images

Visual Arts Image Databases (Y only) | Start Here

ArtStor This link opens in a new window ARTstor is a digital image database of nearly 700,000 images from a wide range of cultures and time periods. It includes tools to manipulate the images for study and teaching. Collections include The Image Collection (key art works used in arts, humanities, social science studies); The Art History Survey collection (concordance of 13 standard art history survey texts); The Carnegie Arts of the United States (American visual arts and material culture); The Hartill Architectural Archive; The Huntington Archive of Asian Art; The Illustrated Bartsch (European prints from 15th-19th centuries); The Mellon International Dunhuang Archive of Chinese art; The MOMA Architecture and Design Archive; The Native American art and Culture from the Smithsonian Institute; and a large number of significant collections being added. For details and tutorials, consult the ARTstor research guide at: http://www.lib.byu.edu/subsutility/viewGuide.php?gid=432&nav=1
Images may be used for non-commercial, scholarly, and educational purposes.
Bridgeman Education This link opens in a new window Bridgeman Education is a complete visual resource offering over 1,000,000 digital images of art, history and culture from global museums, galleries, private collections and contemporary artists all copyright cleared for educational use. Bridgeman Education gives you access to the visual culture of every civilization and every period from Prehistory to the present day across continents and civilisations.
Images may not be used in anything that will be distributed or presented outside of BYU.

HBLL L. Tom Perry Special Collections | Harry F. Bruning Collection

Bakemono no e: Illustrated Scroll of Supernatural Creatures from Japan's Edo Period. High resolution digital scan of the entire fifteen-meter scroll depicting thirty-five different creatures.

This item is part of the Harry F. Bruning Collection house in BYU's L. Tom Perry Special Collections.

Digital Scans of Rare Japanese Books and Scrolls from the Harry F. Bruning Collection on Internet Archive

Original materials housed in the Japanese Rare Book Collection of the BYU L. Tom Perry Special Collections.

Download the Catalog featuring over 400 items from the Bruning Collection at BYU.

Famous Printmaker Hokusai's Sketchbooks and Reference Materials (15 volumes)

北齋漫畵 Hokusai manga

Meiji 45 (1912), 京都 : 芸艸堂 (Kyōto: Unsōdō), Japanese

The volumes have been digitized but printed versions are also available.

Digital Image Collections

Visualizing Cultures: Image Driven Scholarship was launched at MIT in 2002. A collection of well-researched essays supported with hundreds of image. The essays focus on the difficult transition to modernity of China and Japan during the past few centuries. Topical units focus on Japan in the modern world and early-modern China.

Digital Scroll Paintings
Examine individual handscrolls. Center for the Art of East Asia at the University of Chicago. Participating institutions include the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smart Museum in Chicago, the Shanghai Museum, the Palace Museum in Beijing, and the East Asian Library at the University of Chicago.
Asian Historical Architecture
Photographic survey of Asia's architectural heritage, with over 34,000 photos of 1,311 sites in 23 countries. Includes background information and virtual tours.
The Huntington Archive | Photographic Archive of Buddhist and Asian Art
Over 200,000 photographs of art and architecture from throughout Asia. Countries included are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. The photographs are copyrighted to John C. and Susan L. Huntington unless otherwise noted. Browse by material, location, religious category, or iconography.
Chinese Propaganda Posters
Japanese Woodblock Print Search | Ukiyo-e Search
Nearly 300,000 images of Japanese woodblock prints from museums, universities, libraries, auction houses, dealers, and open databases.

What is Artstor?

Interdisciplinary collection of over
2.5 million images.

NOTE: You must register for an individual user account in Artstor to fully use its features.

Public Domain Images

Utagawa Kunivoshi (1798-1861),
The Sea Monk (ca. 1845)

The Public Domain Review
Curated collections of images, books, audio, and film from a wide range of online archives. Browse by century, medium, genre, source, or tags. Try Japanese art...