Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 21. (Budapest, 2002)

Monika BINCSIK: The Trade in Japanese Art during the Meiji Period with Special Reference to Lacquer, as Mirrored in the Collections at the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts, Budapest

MONIKA BINCSIK THE TRADE IN JAPANESE ART DURING THE MEIJI PERIOD WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO LACQUER, AS MIRRORED IN THE COLLECTIONS AT THE FERENC HOPP MUSEUM OF EASTERN ASIATIC ARTS, BUDAPEST. A Preliminary Study Introduction The core of the collections held by the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts in Budapest consists of approximately 4000 artefacts once owned by Ferenc Hopp (1833-1919) as part of his personal property. Under the terms of his last will and testament (1919), these artefacts - along with the villa in which they were kept - passed to the Hungarian state, which was then charged with creating a museum dedicated to art from East Asia. Ferenc Hopp was keen on travel as a way of broadening his knowledge of geography and geology. On his journeys he took many amateur photographs, utilising his expertise in the field of optics.

1 While abroad he also had opportunities to try his hand as an art collector. With a discerning eye he assembled a collection that won the esteem of contemporaries, being especially attracted by objects of applied art that were finely and minutely worked. Initially, Ferenc Hopp tended to purchase artefacts suitable as presents and souvenirs, but he also selected pieces of an ethnographical character. Later on, though, he added to his collection in an ever more conscious way, purchasing Japanese art works at world exhibitions held in Europe and from dealers in Vienna. In accordance with the fashion of the age, he kept his artefacts, carefully arranged, in glass cabinets at his home (Ills. 1-2), a villa on Budapest's Andrássy út. He displayed a particular interest in lacquered artefacts; much to his liking were finely worked inrős and small boxes, incense containers (kő-dögu) and especially artefacts embellished with maki-e.

2 He also purchased writing boxes (suzuribako), tea caddies (natsume), hina - dögu sets (miniature trousseaux used at girls' festivals) sake cups (sakazuki), portable writing boxes (yatate), pipe cases (kiseru-dutsu), picnic sets (sagejû), and the various artefacts deriving from trousseaux sets (konrei chődo). Most of the art works purchased by Ferenc Hopp were made during the 19

th century and almost all were executed to a high standard. The Hopp Museum's archives preserve art dealers' invoices for some of the pieces he purchased in Yokohama and elsewhere in Japan during his round-the-world journeys. These invoices include some made out by Kuhn & Komor (1903, 1904, 1914), Samurai Shökai (1914), The Boston (1914), Azuma (1914), Takahashi (1903), and Ichiban (1903). With the help of these invoices it has become possible to establish more exactly the provenance of some of the lacquered pieces, beyond the identification of the dealers who supplied them. Further exploration of the archival material will hopefully uncover even more information concerning the purchases and the artefacts themselves. * The present study is part of the competition entry OTKA [Hungary's National Foundation for Scientific Research] T38316 entitled "The Collecting of Oriental Art in Hungary as Reflected by the Holdings of the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts". Part of the text was delivered at a conference staged by the Wajima Lacquer Association at Wajima (Japan) on 27 January 2002. The author would like to take this opportunity to thank Professor Akio Haino, Yöichi Yokota, Katsurö Nakamuro and the Yokohama Archives (Yokohama kaikő shiryôkan) for their many and various acts of assistance.