Imre Jakabffy (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 3. (Budapest, 1975)
FERENCZY, László: Traditions and new trends in the Japanese art of the Meiji era
LÁSZLÓ FERENCZ Y TRADITIONS AND NEW TRENDS IN THE JAPANESE ART OF THE MEIJI ERA (Notes to the exhibition of the Hopp Museum) With the exhibition of Japanese art in the Meiji era (1971— 1973) the Francis Hop]) Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts has j)resented lately the third exhibition on Japan. The first was the Fine arts and crafts of the Edo period in 1967 — 1908, to be followed by the presentation of early Japanese art in 1969—1971, when the Museum celebrated its fiftieth year of existence. The bulk of the exhibition was made up of early Buddhist statues, paintings, and later ink paintings. By means of the latest exhibition a full survey of the periods of Japaese art has been offered. In an earlier exhibition on East Asian art, in 1905 the most attractive Japanese handicrafts, lacquers, silks and porcelains were put on show. The presentation of the revolutionary Meiji era (1808—1912) and a thorough evaluation of its artistic values has begun only lately. In Japan the most complete survey of the arts of the Meiji era was published in the Meiji Centenary Series in 1958. 1 The art of the period has been put on show lately in several western countries as well ; and remarkable examples of this series are the exhibition of the Haifa Museum in 1909, the prints of the well-known woodcutter Yoshitoshi of the era in the Cologne Museum of East Asian Art, and among the latest, the Memorial Exhibition of the 1873 Vienna World Fair organized there at the Museum of Applied Art. 2 It was the period of the late past century and of the turn of the century when Europe discovered the most easily available works of the Ukiyo-c art: the wood-block prints and began to turn with interest to Japanese art. The Meiji restauration, however, overturning feudalism and rejecting traditions adopted a new ,,orientation " also giving Japan the first opportunity to have an insight into the civilization and art of the West. The reorganization of social and economic life was soon followed by a radical transformation of Japanese art as well. This was characterized by the adopion of Western styles and art teehni ernes (oil painting, perspective and anatomy) introduced primarily by the invited Italian visiting professors, Antonio Fontanesi and Vincenzo Ragusa. Of similar importance was perhaps the inner transformation of the art world, in the course of which art schools and societies got hold of the leadership against the earlier prevalence of temples, the palaces of the daimyos and of the imperial family, the exhibitions being used as battlefields of all kinds of new trends.
