Objects of Contact: Encounters between Japan and the West

2020

In the 1630s, Japan's ruling shogunate declared an isolationist foreign policy that would last more than two centuries. In practice, however, trade continued to prosper through authorized channels, and cultural exchange flourished with East and Southeast Asia, as well the West. Works of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries reflect the complex global trade routes into which Portuguese, Dutch, and Chinese merchants brought Japan. Motivated by the demands of patrons, fresh models of artistic inspiration, and their own imaginations, artists created new and sometimes surprising works of art that echoed and engaged their world.

The modern era bore witness to increasing political and economic contact. Japan's growing presence on the international stage in world’s fairs was presaged by talented painters traveling abroad, and by monumental commissions displaying the virtuosity of Japan's metalsmiths in the Meiji period (1868–1912). In the twentieth century, Western-style imagery began a new vogue in kimono fashions, while mid-century ceramists and calligraphers sought recognition in the new international language of the avant-garde.

Troubling any simplistic concepts of influence, the diverse works of art brought together in Objects of Contact reveal a fascinating history of transnational encounter between Japan and the western world over more than three centuries.

Curated by Jeannie Kenmotsu, PhD, Japan Foundation Associate Curator of Japanese Art and Interim Head of Asian Art.

Major support provided by the Japan Foundation.

Curated by Jeannie Kenmotsu