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Collecting Japanese Antiques. Alistair Seton
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isbn 9781462905881
Автор произведения Alistair Seton
Издательство Ingram
When Western ideas poured into Meiji Japan (1868-1912), artists were in a quandary. Should they throw away or keep their tradition of the line being paramount? Should they try to meld East and West? Thanks to advice from Ernest Fenollosa, and to Okakura Tenshin's leadership, some old arts and skills were kept for the future while Western techniques were taught too.
It is likely that Japan produced a number of great artists as a result of this clash of civilizations. The Rise of Japanese Art lists the following: Yokoyama Taikan, Shimomura Kanzan, Hishida Shun-sō, Imamura Shikō, Hayami Gyoshū, Yasuda Yukihiko, Kobayashi Kokei, Maeda Seison, Okumura Togyū, Kuroda Seiki, Umehara Ryūzaburō, Tomioka Tessai, Higashiyama Kai'i, Takeuchi Seihō, and a Kyoto lady, Uemura Shōen, who made memorable works within the Japanese tradition.
In the Meiji era, Kuroda Kiyoteru and Fujishima Takeji were leading Western-style painters. Some artists have worked almost wholly within the West, such as Foujita Tsuguharu in France and Okada Kenzō in New York. Tens of thousands of artists compete for attention and it is hard to see the wood for the trees and this is only an overview. But taste is personal-if you ask a young woman, she will probably choose dreamy Takehisa Yumeji (1884-1934).
New Edo Arts
During the 250-year-long Edo peace, many new arts came to the fore. Swords were still made at this time but had passed their peak as they were no longer required for the purposes of fighting but more for ceremonial use. However, the fittings that went with them, such as the hand-guard (tsuba) and the little knife (kozuka), were raised to a new pinnacle of workmanship (see Swords and Armor). In the same way, but quite a bit later, new metal ornaments for tables, niches, and desks (okimono) became popular and artisans showed their skill at detailed work like reticulation (see Sculpture and Metalwork).
The growth of urban society made many people richer, which led to conspicuous consumption. Women wanted more and more sumptuous clothes, boudoir items, and hair ornaments, so kimono and lacquerware flourished to meet their needs. Men spent time at the theater and pleasure quarters, so wanted pictures of actors and beautiful women, which led to the growth of ukiyo-e (see Ukiyo-e and Prints). They also wanted to have a dandy's sense of style (iki), so vied with each other to have handsome things hanging from the belt (obi). These useful ornaments (sagemono), which I here call "danglers," held medicine or seals, tobacco, pipes, writing instruments, etc., and were suspended from the belt. They were made of gold, silver, lacquer, and ivory (see Sagemono).
Cloisonné was probably invented in ancient Greece but crossed into Asia. It was known in Japan 1,300 years ago, but was little used. Suddenly, in the 1830s it burst into bloom and, after complete rein-vigoration with new arts and materials, for the rest of the century was one of Japan's most sought-after exports (see Cloisonné).
Japan has been a vibrant, developed economy for many centuries and made the kind of rich people's toys that only the well-off can afford, so that it contributed much to mankind's collective search for beauty, inventing new concepts and even many arts.
Fig. 10 Shiba Kōkan,"European Land-scape with Figures," late 18th c., oil on silk, 45 x 22 in (114 x 56 cm). Photo courtesy Kobe City Museum.
COLLECTING FOR FUN AND WITH WISDOM
Collecting can be a bore or a pleasure, a fleeting crush, or a lifelong passion. You will not know until you get dusty hands in dirty corners and in Aladdin's cave see the beauties of the past in spotless surroundings. Both are stops on your journey! Surprises await you. Shapes that are new to you metamorphose: a brazier becomes a coffee table, a pillow becomes a book rest, a mat changes into a rack, a fish becomes a wall vase. Aladdin's lamp works wonders.
How should you start your adventure into Japanese antiques? One of the best ways is to flip through books on other people's coffee tables or in bookstores, or nose around flea markets. You can browse in galleries like the Tokyo Furniture Museum or catch an exhibition. Listen to friends who have been around longer, especially if they are enthusiastic and have things to show or tell. If you are brave and can resist temptation, you might scan a large store like the Oriental Bazaar in Omotesandō, Tokyo, or steer along Shinmonzen and Furumonzen in Kyoto, if you are in Japan, or go to the Manhattan Antiques Center in New York, or Bond/Kensington Church Streets in London. The first is reasonably priced and has a representative selection of new and old things but is unlikely to have anything unusual. Stores in the others are unlikely to be cheap but may have wonderful things. There are also important regular markets and auctions in the US or Europe where things Japanese turn up in fair numbers, and there are some excellent stores.
Another route is to go to an antiques fair in Japan, New York, or London. Old-timers may say that there is little of interest to see or buy, but go anyway. You will encounter shapes, materials, and colors you have never seen before. Many articles may look shabby but even the less attractive booths will have something you might like. The owners would not be in business long if they did not display items which sell. You may not like their merchandise but obviously somebody else does. It is timely to recall Jack Sprat who ate no fat and his wife who ate no lean. What turns others off, may turn you on. This is particularly true with items arousing feelings of enmity like militaria, or prudishness, such as the erotic pictures called shunga. Women have been taught to avoid such things, so are defensive when they meet them. Later, they may feel curiosity or find the exaggerated members exotic, not offensive, and end up giving one to their man for his birthday.
The museums most famous for Japanese art are in London, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, New York, Washington DC, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and Toronto, but provincial cities may surprise aficionados with their offerings too.
Fig. 11 Anon.,"Budding Willow with Herons and Stream in Snow," six-panel screen, gold ground with scalloped gold clouds, 18th c., 5 ft 6 1/2 in x 12ft 2 in (1.7 x 3.7 m). Photo courtesy Liza Hyde.
Changing Taste
Taste changes with time. When I was young, everybody looked down on Victorian furniture because it was "heavy and in bad taste." Nowadays, it is back in fashion. This pattern recurs, particularly with the styles of periods too recent for detachment. The artists and works of whole periods may be tarred with the feathers that should stick only to some artists who did inferior work, or used poor materials. For a time people laughed at Art Deco, Grandma Moses, and Lowrie. Now they are worshipped. Meiji art and handicrafts were condemned a generation ago, but now the good parts grace great exhibitions. Taste is fluid in food, clothes, and art.
When foreigners first come to live in Japan, they look around with their old eyes and old ideas, buying things older hands avoid. That is part of the learning process. If you buy nothing you regret later, you must be very controlled or tight with money-certainly not adventurous! But it is usually a good idea to wait a little until, by dint of eating carrots, you can see better in the netherworld.
Taste is determined by time and acclimatization, contact, and knowledge. What you buy in the first few weeks off the plane and what you collect years later differ. You are changed by time spent in a new environment and contact with people and things there. Knowledge of the new way of life you pick up talking, seeing, and living with things lends a new perspective, a new pair of eyes. This is the great thing about learning new languages, or adventuresome journeys: you grow and acquire a new persona. You notice more subtle color variations, textures, and materials you had missed. You understand why people prefer the pre-chemical colors of older textiles and porcelain, and accept the marks of the years on often-washed indigo fabric or child-banged chests. The patina of age seems worth paying for. The eye seeks something different, no longer novelty for its own saké. The eye becomes stricter, or "higher," as they say in Japanese.
To a certain extent, this process is inevitable, but the pace at which it occurs can be slowed or speeded