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

Satow's travel guide published in 1881 featured the following Yohohama art businesses: Japanese Works of Art: Kuhn and Co., No. 77, Main Street [111. 5] Japanese Curio Dealers: Minoda Chôjirô, fine lacquer, enamels, ivories, Honchö dóri [111. 6] Tama-ya, fine lacquer, Honchö-döri [111. 7] Musashiya, jewellery, ivories, Honchö-döri [111.8] Yorodzuya, bronzes, Honchö-döri Matsu-ishi-ya, porcelain in foreign shapes, No. 22, Honchö döri Shamo Käme, embroidery, porcelain and enamels, No. 15, Honchö döri Goto, enamels, Honchö döri Shobey, right hand [sic] near the middle of Honchö döri Ise Toku, silk store [sic], No. 68, Benten döri

35 Proceeding via the Tökaidö, the visitor could reach Tokyo. Here, too, the travel book gave a list of dealers in art and lacquered objects.

36 For most travellers, shopping in Yokohama was the most pleasant way of passing the time. The many gift shops, antique shops, silk shops, and photographer's shops succeeded each other almost without a break on Honmachi, or Main Street. In some guidebooks this is called simply "Curio Street". Count Ágost Zichy, who visited Japan in 1876, gave the following account of his experiences: "In Yokohama two long, parallel streets stretch across the Japanese town; left and right there are just shops selling handicrafts and antiques. One of these streets is even known as Curio Street. These are the places where foreigners congregate, the home of 'bibelotage', as the French call it, with friendly sellers inviting shoppers in and offering them tea and sweets."

37 Alice Mary Rea noted the following in her diary: 14 December 1881 At the end of the "Bund" is the native town, where all the Japanese live, and curio shops delight and distract every new comer [sic]. The houses are two-storied, low, and grey tiled, with deep over-hanging roofs. There is one street called "Curio Street" and here we spent our first afternoon amongst the shops. The doors slide back, one ascends a step, and enters a small room, covered with exquisite white matting, and having shelves running around it on which are ranged specimens of lacquer work, china, cloissonne [sic], embroidery, arms, bronzes, and cabinets that are enough to make the collector go into raptures. The merchants squat on their heels, and toast their fingers over the "Hibachi" (fire bowl), a box of brass, wood or delf in which some charcoal embers smoulder, and are so accustomed to living in this Paradise of Art, that they think no more, apparently of the rarest tea pot [sic], or ancient plaque than the young women at confectioners do of lemon drops, or sponge cakes! We wondered at the 'Baby-house' style, and dimension of everything. The rice bowls are tea cups [sic] - the tea cups thimbles - and the tea pot, a joke.

38 (111. 9) According to accounts written at the time, Yokohama was in any event a paradise for antique dealers. A Mr. and Mrs. Down, who visited the town in 1893, recalled that two-thirds of the tourists in search of antiques were Americans, who, without regard to expense, endeavoured to acquire as many artefacts as possible. (111. 10) In 1885 a Mr. and Mrs. Cotes visited Japan and during seven weeks of travel in the country purchased objets d'art. The large volume of antiques they acquired was later to fill an entire room in their home. A room in the Japanese style (or, rather, Japonisme-Yike style) was called a Mikado room.

39 (111. 11) Rudyard Kipling, too, recalled a visit he had made to a curio shop in Kobe in 1898.

40 In the 1903 edition of the travel guide written by Chamberlain and Mason we read the following in connection with the purchasing of art works: "At the present day, foreign influence is causing the spread of Western business methods, but extensive manufactures and shop-windows finely decked out exist as yet only in two or three of the larger towns. Even there, the best things must often be sought in narrow lanes. It