Among the many ways that one can approach a distant country are study, travel and the unique sensitivity that allows a person to distinctly interpret a culture. In the case of Jeffrey Montgomery and his collection of Japanese art, all three of these elements interact in a surprisingly harmonious way. This volume presents 170 works from the 12th to 20th centuries―including textiles, furniture, paintings, religious and everyday items―carefully selected from the over 1,000 objects held by Jeffrey Montgomery’s splendid collection. Renowned worldwide, the Montgomery Collection displays an extraordinary richness and a very singular substance: it is a collection of “oriental art,” and at the same time it expresses a “folk culture” reinterpreted in very elevated aesthetic terms by the elegant and refined choices made by the collector who had dedicated his entire life to it.