Japan’s Reclaiming of the Discourse on its Art History
Japanese Participation in Universal Exhibitions from Paris (1867) to Chicago (1893)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14422/cir.i17.y2020.005Keywords:
Japanese Art History, universal exhibitions, Ho-Ō-Den Pavilion, Okakura Kakuzō, Japanese historiographyAbstract
The role of the cultural tradition of a nation manifested through its art works in international relations such as seen at the Universal Exhibitions during the second half of the 19th century has been documented, but it is particularly fascinating if we pay attention to Japan’s participation in such exhibitions. Japan understood this aspect of international politics explicitly and progressively configured its very own discourse on Japanese Art History, a subject which until that time had been primarily interpreted through Western perspectives.
This article will try to analyze the different circumstances of Japan’s participation in these events, paying special attention to documents published or actions taken by Japanese authorities in order to disseminate knowledge of its heritage. While the improvement of material conditions in Japan had a direct influence in Japan’s representation in the exhibitions, already from the beginning there was a bet by the Japanese Government to be there. This indicates Japanese authorities’ priority to showcase Japan together with the rest of the participating nations in the hopes that Japan would be seen as one of the most developed nations. Another reason for such need to present itself to the world was the insistence by the rest of the developed countries on placing Japan within an inferior category, as less developed, and consequently, placing its art in the same inferior position.
Within this evolution of Japan’s regaining its right to its own Art History, its participation in the Columbine Exhibition of Chicago in 1893 was epoch-making, since it was the first occasion in which the international public was presented with a consistent and solid discourse on Japanese Art History materialized in an architectonic pavilion considered to be one of the apexes of Japan’s artistic production. It was the first step into swinging the balance in the possession and articulation of knowledge on Japanese Art that would be completely secured by the time of the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1900.
Downloads
References
Applebaum, S. (1982). The Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 a photographic record photos from the collections of the Avery Library of Columbia University and Chicago Historical Society. New York: Dover Publications Inc.
Arnold, C. D., & Higinbotham, H. D. (1893). Official Views of the Columbian Exposition issued by the Department of Photography. Chicago: Press Chicago Photo-Gravure Co.
Aso, N. (2014). Public Properties. Museums in Imperial Japan. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Coaldrake, K. (2013). Fine Arts vs Decorative Arts. The Categorization of Japanese Art in the World Exhibitions. Vienna (1873), Paris (1878) and Chicago (1893). Japan Forum, 25(2), 174-190. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09555803.2012.743482
Commission Impériale du Japon. (1878). Le Japon a L’Exposition Universelle de 1878. Premiére Partie. Géographie et Histoire du Japon. Paris: A la Commission Impériale du Japon.
Commission Impériale du Japon. (1878). Le Japon a L’Exposition Universelle de 1878. Deuxième Partie. Art, Éducation et Enseignement, Industrie Productions, Agriculture et Horticulture. Paris: A la Commission Impériale du Japon.
Fenollosa, E. (1893). Contemporary Japanese Art with examples from the Chicago Exhibit. The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, 46(4), 77-580.
Fernández de los Ríos, A. (1878). La Exposición Universal de 1878. Madrid: English y Gras.
Geppert, A. (2010). Fleeting Cities. Imperial Expositions in Fin-de-Siècle Europe. London and New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Gonse, L. (1879). L’Art Ancien a l’Exposition de 1878. Paris: Publication de La Gazette des Beaux-Arts.
Gonse, L. (1879). L’Art Moderne a l’Exposition de 1878. Paris: Publication de La Gazette des Beaux-Arts.
Imperial Japanese Commission. (1893). History of the Empire of Japan. Yokohama: Dai Nippon Tosho Kabushiki Kwaisha.
Kigi, Y. (2009). Hayashi Tadamasa. Ukiyo-e wo koete Nihon bijutsu no subete wo. Kioto: Minerva Shobō.
Kitazawa N. (1989). Me no Shinden. Bijutsu juyōshi nōto. Tokio: Bijutsu Shuppansha.
Lancaster, C. (1953). Japanese Buildings in the United States before 1900: Their Influence upon American Domestic Architecture. The Art Bulletin, 35(3), 217-224. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00043079.1953.11408188
Mehl, M. (1998). History and the State in Nineteenth-Century Japan. London: Palgrave McMillan Press Ltd.
Miles, G. (1892). World’s fairs from London 1851 to Chicago 1893. Chicago: Midway Publishing Company.
Navarro Reverter, J. (1875). Del Turia al Danubio: memorias de la Exposición Universal de Viena. Valencia: Imprenta de J. Domenech.
Okakura, K. (1893). The Hō-Ō-Den (Phoenix Hall) An Illustrated Description of the Building Erected by The Japanese Government at the World’s Columbian Exhibition, Jackson Park. Chicago & Tokio: K. Ogawa Publisher.
Pichardo, M. S. (1894). La Ciudad Blanca. Crónicas de la Exposición Colombina de Chicago. Habana: Biblioteca de El Figaro.
Rand, McNally, & Co.’s (1893). A Week at the Fair. Illustrating the Exhibits and Wonders of the World’s Columbian Exposition. Chicago: Rand, McNally & Company Publishers.
Sastre de la Vega, D. (2019). Arte y Nación. El discurso de la Historia del Arte en el Japón Meiji. Barcelona: Edicions Bellaterra.
Satō, D. (2011). Modern Japanese Art and the Meiji State. The Politics of Beauty. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institution.
Schirokauer, C., Lurie, D., & Gay, S. (2006, 2014). Breve historia de la civilización japonesa. Barcelona: Edicions Bellaterra.
Smith, W. (1878). The Masterpieces of the Centennial International Exhibition Illustrated. Volume II. Industrial Art. Philadelphia: Gebbie & Barrie.
Snodgrass, J. (2003). Presenting Japanese Buddhism to the West. Orientalism, Occidentalism, and the Columbian Exposition. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press.
Tateno, G. (1893). Japan. Foreign Nations at the Worlds’s Fair. The North american Review, 1(156), 34-43.
The Japanese Commission. (1876). Official Catalogue of the Japanese Section and descriptive notes on the Industry and Agriculture of Japan. Philadelphia: The Japanese Commission.
Tseng, A. (2008). The Imperial Museums of Meiji Japan. Architecture and the Art of the Nation. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press.
Westcott, T. (1876). Centennial portfolio: a souvenir of the international exhibition at Philadelphia, comprising lithographic views of fifty of its principal buildings. Philadelphia: T. Hunter.
Weston, V. (2004). Japanese Painting and National Identity. Okakura Tenshin and his circle. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan.
Wight, P. B. (1892). Japanese Architecture at Chicago. The Inland Architect and News Record, 20(5), 49-50.
Wight, P. B. (1892). Japanese Architecture at Chicago. The Inland Architect and News Record, 20(6), 68-69.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
The authors of articles published in Comillas Journal of International Relations retain the intellectual property rights over their works and grant the journal their distribution and public communication rights, consenting to their publication under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivates 4.0 Unported. Authors are encouraged to publish their work on the Internet (for example, on institutional or personal pages, repositories, etc.) respecting the conditions of this license and quoting appropriately the original source.
