'Japan Envisions the West' at the Seattle Art Museum
In 1543, two shipwrecked Portuguese fishermen washed up onto the shores of an island off the southern coast of Japan. Thus began a long and fruitful history of East/West cultural exchange. The first four centuries of that interplay are skillfully examined in a fascinating new exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum.
Its title, "Japan Envisions the West: 16th to 19th Century Japanese Art from Kobe City Museum," is somewhat misleading. Although the majority of the items on display do indeed demonstrate the impact of Western art and ideas on Japanese aesthetics, there is also ample evidence of the influences of Japanese technology and artistic expression on European decorative and fine arts. This show demonstrates that culture contact is never a one-way street.
The works are compelling artistic expressions that can be appreciated on that level alone. When overlaid with the historical context, the exhibit becomes even richer.
Within a year of the landing of those two Portuguese sailors, trade between Japan and Europe was initiated. The new goods and new processes were integrated into traditional Japanese systems, particularly into the arts where new techniques and styles were carefully copied.
Along with trade came Jesuit missionaries. They were so successful in converting people to Christianity that by 1639 the Japanese government expelled the proselytizers and closed the country to all outsiders in an effort to preserve the indigenous culture.
But, of course, the imposed isolation wasn't complete. Dutch traders were allowed to operate from a small island in Nagasaki Harbor. The island known as Dejima became, in actuality, a foreign land. The Dutch could not enter Japan; and only a few authorized Japanese could cross the one bridge that connected Dejima to the mainland. But this was a bridge where ideas as well as goods made their way back and forth, and the exhibition shows just how extensively these exchanges affected the arts.
Japan's seclusion came to an end in 1853 when Commodore Perry sailed into Tokyo Harbor and demanded open trading. The Japanese, armed with 16th-century weapons, were no match for a force equipped with 19th-century firearms.
The exhibition begins with a display of 16th-, 17th- and 18th-century maps. The Age of Exploration kept European cartographers busy, and works by some of the best of them are on exhibit. It's fascinating to see how Western conceptions of the world changed as the explorers brought back their tales of wonder. What a contrast they are to the Buddhist fan-shaped map of 1749 that shows a world composed of just three countries: India, China and Japan.
While the map makers were busy in Europe, the Jesuits were setting up schools in Japan. There, the artistic techniques used in 16th- and 17th-century Europe were taught to young Japanese artists. A forceful example of the skills of these Japanese students is found in a 1610 four-panel screen called "Foreign Emperors and Kings on Horseback." This compelling, 15-foot-long reproduction of leaders of the Roman, Turkish, Muscovite and Mongol people is a near-perfect rendition of figures decorating a map of the world published in Amsterdam in 1609.
If you are interested in cultural history, the section of the exhibit devoted to life in Nagasaki and the island of Dejima will be especially appealing. Official painters were required to make copies of imported paintings for Nagasaki files. Over time, the Western styles influenced their own work. My favorite example of this is Kawahara Keiga's depiction of Nagasaki Harbor in the early 19th century. This wonderfully detailed painting with its landscape, shadowing and perspective might well have been created by a Western artist.
Taguchi Rokoku's hanging scroll of "Dutch Couple on a Walk" provides a strong example of West meets East. It has much in common with the two lithographs by Dutch artist J.M. van Lijnden that offer a very Western view of the Dutch enclave on Dejima. Comparison of these 19th-century works with "Scenes of a Dutch Settlement in Nagasaki" from the early 18th century provides a superb example of how the Western influence increased over the years.
Of course, art influences are accompanied by technological innovation. Don't miss the late-18th-century Japanese telescope made of glass cylinders that have been painted on the inside with European motifs. Then look across the gallery at a wonderful Hokusai woodblock print of the same period showing two Japanese ladies using telescopes.
But cross-cultural influences go both ways, and we see ample proof of the impact of Japanese aesthetics on the West in pottery, porcelain, lacquerware and furniture. These Japanese-made lacquered wood cabinets, boxes and tables with mother-of-pearl inlay speak to the fashion in decorative arts in Europe in the 19th century. German Meissen and English Chelsea porcelain dinnerware also show how Japanese designs and manufacturing techniques were adapted in the West. Dutch Delftware reinforces the point.
The exhibit ends with Perry's arrival and the years immediately following. The most current work is an 1867 woodblock triptych print by Utagawa Yoshitora, "Hot Air Balloons in an American City." It depicts a group of men and women waiting for three passenger balloons approaching their transportation hub. That Americans were roaming the skies in balloons was a popular misconception in Japan at the time. It's a charming con}clusion to an exhibition that addresses the whole question of cultural interaction and adaptation.
I wish it had been possible to address the enormous impact that the Japanese aesthetic had on later Western artists. The names Whistler, Monet, Degas, Van Gogh come immediately to mind. Then there was the impact on the arts and crafts movement and Picasso, on the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright and so many others. Perhaps we'll be lucky enough to see that here in Seattle some day.
This exhibition is a tribute to the 50-year sister-city relationship between Seattle and Kobe, Japan. The current display will be followed on Dec. 1 by the second half of the exhibit. Both components were organized by the Seattle Art Museum in collaboration with Kobe City Museum. Yukiko Shirahara, the John A. McCone Foundation Curator of Asian Art, curated Seattle's dual presentation.
"Japan Envisions the West: 16th to 19th Century Japanese Art, Part 1" continues at the Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Ave., through Nov. 25. 634-3100, www.seattleartmuseum.org.
