The year 2018 marks 150 years since the beginning of the Meiji era in Japan, the period that will launch Japan into modernity. The National Museum of Asian Arts – Guimet also commemorates, in its own way, Mutsuhito's imperial Japan by showing its transformation through its artistic production.
The creation of a national belonging through the arts?
The first thing that strikes you in the exhibition is the diversity of the pieces presented. There is something for everyone: from the very famous Japanese print to the writing board, burners, embroidery, swords, vases, kimonos and much more await you.
The Meiji era is an important period for Japan, it is about modernizing the country, but above all about making it uniform. Until then, the Japanese defined themselves more by their belonging to a province than to the country, which explains the very many dialects that exist. Emperor Mutsuhito's plan was to found an empire where his subjects would have a strong sense of national belonging.
It is a time of modernization of Japan and openness to the world, a period of enlightened government trying to catch up with other countries. This revolution affects all areas of Japanese life, including art.
The world witnessed an internationalization of Japanese artistic production. However, to allow art to be exported, it must be created. And it was in 1885 that the first Japanese School of Fine Arts was founded in Tokyo. The art produced differs from Western art and seduces by its difference, Japan is then an artistic unity recognized in its singularity. And the country continues to cultivate this difference by turning to the sources of its past for its images: yôkai, Shinto deities, samurai, geisha then populate art. This is a vocabulary that has never been heard of in Europe.
Masterpieces from a period too little known in European collections
The exhibition was based on pieces from European public collections in France, such as the Musée National des Arts Asiatiques – Guimet, but also the Victoria & Albert Museum or the British Museum (in England, you will have understood!). These collections are very rich, however, they are not the only ones to fill the displays of the exhibition. Indeed, they also include bequests and acquisitions from European collectors, or pieces from the private London collection, Khalili.
These origins demonstrate a real taste for Japanese art in Europe, here for pieces from the Meiji era. Real masterpieces are gathered in the exhibition rooms, some of which catch the eye by their impressive size or by their precious components (gold, mother-of-pearl or ivory are common materials). There are large decorative vases from the late nineteenth century, magnificent carved wooden screens, finely embroidered kimonos, dragon-shaped burners but also large figures of samurai erecting naginata …
"Resonating souls"
The Meiji era marked the shift from a feudal system to a Western-style system for Japan. Thanks to his new openness to the world, he is influenced by new traditions and new ways of thinking. But we must not forget that it itself becomes a source of inspiration, Japan marks the West, as much as it is marked by the West.
Through contacts with the West, two main categories were created in Japanese art: Japanese painting (nihonga) and Western painting (yō-ga), proof of the insertion of foreign art within the country. Obviously, the best known face of these artistic exchanges is Japonisme, which first affects French artists and writers before spreading throughout the West. Europe finds its new source of inspiration in Japan.
Japan is invited to demonstrate its technical progress and its art from the very first Universal Exhibition of 1851, in London. The country arouses a keen interest, due to a certain adaptation to Western taste, while remaining singular in its images and objects. The success was so great that the factories of Europe began to reproduce Japanese art… Have fun differentiating objects from Japan from those made in the West in the last part of the exhibition!
The Japonismes 2018 event, which also celebrates the Meiji Restoration and 160 years of diplomatic relations between France and Japan, is actually called "Japonismes 2018: Resonating Souls" and this is probably the best illustration of the Meiji era.
The exhibition thus proposes to return to the Meiji era through a multitude of art objects and prints, each finer and more precious than the last. It is a feast for the eyes, but also for the head, because we learn to discover a pivotal period of Japan.
"Meiji, Splendours of Imperial Japan" introduces us to the necessary invention of Japonism in Japan, which is then exported and used in the West.
Practical information
Address : Musée National des Arts Asiatiques – Guimet, 6 place d'Iéna 75116 Paris
Open : every day (excluding Tuesdays and public holidays) from 10am to 6pm, until January 14, 2019
Price : 11.5€ full price and 8.5€ reduced price (includes access to the Meiji exhibition and the permanent collections). Free for under 25s who are citizens of the European Union.
Attention: in case of high attendance at the Meiji exhibition, the last entry will be at 4:30 pm, visit the exhibition between 10 am and 2 pm!
