Pair of Sword Guards (Daishō Tsuba) by Ishiguro MasatsuneGift of Herman A. E. and Paul C. Jaehne, 1943
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Medium: Copper-gold alloy (shakudō), copper-silver alloy (shibuichi), gold, copper
Japonism is, in short, the influence that Japanese art has had in European works. Most specifically in that of the 19th century. It’s also known as Japonisme and Anglo-Japanese.
Are you a fan - like so many others - of artists such as Van Gogh? Without the woodblock Ukiyo-e prints of the Edo Period, his style would differ from what we know and love now. This traditional Japanese art form had an enormous impact on Western art. It was part of the foundation that created movements such as Impressionism, Post-Impressionism (of course), and Art Nouveau. For the history of Ukiyo-e prints, I have a post here.
As Japan’s artworks became more available to all, thanks to international trade, it spread across the world. Japanese arts were collected and featured in English exhibitions, and shown to all at places like The World’s Fair. The craze in France started when these blocks were introduced and sold out quickly. They were beautiful, and cheap to make. The influence of Asian art continued to spread in all artistic endeavours. People loved how different Japanese characteristics of art were from what they had been taught. Van Gogh is not the only recognizable person to be influenced by Asian art. Claude Monet (1840-1926), Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), and Louis Anquetin (1861-1924) are just a few more that adopted certain Japanese styles in their work.
What attracted artists to these Japanese works is the vivid, bold, and unshaded shapes and colours. Without this influence, it makes you wonder what the works of Edgar Degas (1834-1917) and Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) would have looked like. The similarities may not be obvious at first glance, but it is the composition, colours, and lines you must focus on to truly understand the influence. Some works may be obvious - beautiful women dressed in kimonos - while others more subtle. In any case, it’s amazing to see how the influence of another culture can help form entire movements across the world.
Above details: Maternal Caress (1890-91) by Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) // Models for Fashion: New Year Designs as Fresh as Young Leaves
(c. 1778-1780) by Isoda Kōryūsai (1735-1790) // One of the three tiles in Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Spectre (1844) by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861) // Woman with Fan (1917-18) by Gustav Klimt (1862–1918)
“Kintsugi (金継ぎ?) (Japanese: golden joinery) or Kintsukuroi (金繕い?) (Japanese: golden repair) is the Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with lacquer resin dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum a method similar to the maki-e technique. As a philosophy it speaks to breakage and repair becoming part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise.” (wiki)
When the Japanese repair broken items, the damaged area, the cracks, are filled with gold. They believe that when something’s suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful.The traditional Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with a strong adhesive spray, then with gold dust, is called Kintsugi.The result is that pottery is not only repaired but is even stronger than the original. Instead of trying to hide flaws and cracks, these are accentuated and celebrated as they now have become the strongest part of the piece. So, not only is there no attempt to hide the damage, but the repair is literally illuminated. Kintsukuroi is the Japanese term for the art of lacquer repaired with gold or silver, meaning that the object is more beautiful for being broken.
