12 Japanese Art


JAPAN IN THE BRITISH COUNTRY HOUSE


by Emile de Bruijn T


he impact of Japanese material culture in the British Isles has been varied and long-lasting.


Over the last 400 years or so, successive waves of Japanese products have been welcomed enthusiastically in Britain,


from gold-on-black


lacquer and Arita porcelain in the 17th century to woodblock prints, sculptural


metalwork, and garden


design in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But the evidence of this appreciation is not just found in museums. Te collections, interiors, and gardens of country houses, too, can provide insights into the reception history of Japanese art and design. What country house collections lack in comprehensiveness, they make up for in historical context, showing how Japanese objects and materials were appreciated


and used. Tis is


demonstrated by the Japanese and Japanese-inspired objects and decorative schemes in the historic properties of the National Trust, an independent charity founded to preserve heritage and nature in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Te National Trust looks after a great variety of historic houses and gardens, many of which contain Japanese


or Japanese-inspired


elements. Te study of these fragments of Japaneseness in British and Irish settings is revealing all sorts of fascinating connections and insights. Te first significant influx of


Japanese luxury goods into Britain occurred around 1600. Tis was when the English East India Company was founded by merchants forming a joint stock company to share the investment required to trade effectively with Asia. European seafarers, in particular the Portuguese, had been gradually venturing along the African coast and into the Pacific in the 16th century, inserting themselves into the existing trade networks in South, Southeast, and East Asia, and bringing Asian goods back to Europe. Te profits to be made on the importation of Asian spices, pepper, and other products prompted both English and Dutch merchants to establish ‘East India’ trading companies, in 1600 and 1602 respectively. Lacquer from Japan made from


the sap of the lacquer tree (toxicodendron vernicifluum) was one of the products that was received with wonder in Europe. Te water- resistant and heat-diffusing qualities of lacquer, combined with the sophisticated artistry of Japanese lacquer artisans, made it an extremely desirable product. Te lobed lacquer tray in the collection at Florence Court is in a style known as namban, meaning ‘southern barbarian’ in Japanese. Tis


type of lacquer


decoration had been developed in response to demand from the Portuguese, whose ships arrived in Japan from the south. Te Portuguese had developed a


taste for the objects decorated with mother-of-pearl made in Gujarat, on the northwestern coast of India, and


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Lacquer tray, Japanese, circa 1580-1620, 32 x 37 cm, at Florence Court, County Fermanagh © National Trust Images. Photo: Dara McGrath


Lacquer table cabinet, Japanese, circa 1580-1620, 27.5 x 33.5 x 25 cm, at Chirk Castle, Wrexham © National Trust Images. Photo: Susanne Gronnow


Japanned cabinet on stand, English, second half 17th century, 49 x 93.5 x 50.5 cm, at Felbrigg Hall, Norfolk © National Trust Images. Photo: Leah Band


The first significant influx of


Japanese luxury goods arrived around 1600


Japanese artisans echoed the dense decoration of Gujarati objects when producing namban lacquer for the Portuguese. But pictorial motifs from the Japanese Kano school of painting also found their way onto namban lacquer, as can be seen in the pair of lions in the centre of the Florence Court tray, reminiscent of a pair of lions on a screen by Kano Eitoku (1543-1590) now in the Sannomaru-Shozokan (Museum of the Imperial Collections) in Tokyo. When the English


and Dutch


merchants began to trade with the Japanese around 1600, they initially brought back Portuguese-influenced namban lacquer. Even at this early stage, we already


Pair of lacquer caskets, Japanese, circa 1640-90, 34 x 31 x 30.5 cm each, at Belton House, Lincolnshire, purchased by the National Trust with a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, 1984 © National Trust Images. Photo: Leah Band


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see a mechanism at work that might be called ‘orientalism’, which could in essence be described as ‘how the West sees the East’. Edward Said, writing about European attitudes to the Middle East in his ground- breaking study Orientalism (1978), analysed the processes by which Western opinion-formers and taste-


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makers idealised, caricatured, and essentialised ‘the East’, creating fictional constructs that could be more readily accepted and consumed by Western audiences. In fact, the same mechanisms are in play in the Western perceptions of East Asia: products like Chinese porcelain and Japanese lacquer were received with wonder while at the same time being altered to suit European customs and uses. In the case of Japanese lacquer, this resulted in the creation of the namban


style, Japanese with that its dense,


Gujarati-inspired decoration that appealed to Portuguese buyers. It was not just the decoration of lacquer


reflected


European taste, but also its shapes. Te table cabinet at Chirk Castle is decorated in a similar way to the tray mentioned above, with abundant mother-of-pearl and with imagery inspired by Kano school painting. Te way it has been designed, however, with a fall front concealing a set of drawers and a central door, is modelled


after 16th-century


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