Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 20. (Budapest, 2001)

Mária FERENCZY: On the history of the Netsuke collection of the Ferenc Hopp Museum - on the Occasion of the Publication of its Catalogue

charge of that collection. Her main field of interest is minor arts in the Edo period, with a focus on miniature carvings. In as early as 1980, she curated a small exhibition of the Japanese miniature carvings stored in the museum. The show enjoyed great success. We decided to stage an exhibition of these marvellous works and publish the findings of the research. The kind support we received in 1999 from Mitsubishi Corporation Budapest Office was of tremendous help in our efforts to put on the show and compile related publications. The exhibition was opened in May 2000 and two small-size catalogues were published to accompany it.

4 * * * The interest in Oriental cultures and the East in general has a long-standing tradition in Hungary. It is partly based on the belief of the Oriental origins of the Hungarian people, the search for ancestors and roots, and partly on historical connections tying Hungary to the less distant East, namely the Ottoman Empire, for centuries. The 150 years of Ottoman occupation, relations with Turks and Tartars as neighbours brought about not only wars and diplomatic relationships but tremendous cultural impacts as well. On the other hand, information about the Far East reaching this part of Europe was rather scant for a long time. Books published in Western Europe, porcelains and other luxury items from the East delivered upon the orders of aristocrats reached the area of the Hungarian Kingdom and Transylvania in growing numbers from the 18

th century onwards, offering some insight into the culture of a distant world. The first information about Japan and Japanese art also reached Hungary via West European channels. Objects, primarily porcelains, introduced to Europe by Dutch merchants had become known as collections of the royalty and aristocratic families. Owners of such collections included Hungarian aristocrats as well: for instance, there existed a collection of Japanese porcelains in Count Ferenc Zichy

's (1811-1900) castle in Vedrőd (then Pozsony County, Hungary, today: Voderady, Slovakia). About the exceptional beauty of gifts - silks and lacquers - presented to missions visiting the Far East it was only news that arrived here, but the writings of early travellers, such as Kaempfer

5 and Siebold,

6 providing comprehensive information were accessible for Hungarians interested in Japan as well: the libraries of the university in Buda operating since 1777 (since 1784 in Pest), the Hungarian National Museum, founded in 1802, and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, founded in 1826, stove to collect information and accumulate knowledge about distant cultures. Because of his interest in Japanese art, Count Dr Ágost Zichy

7 (1852-1925) must be mentioned of Hungarian travellers from the aristocracy. Count Zichy visited Japan in 1876 and delivered his lecture, entitled Tanulmány a japáni művészetről [A Study on Japanese Art], at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1879. 8 After studying contemporary literature on the subject, he described Japanese architecture, sculpture and painting relying on his own experience. His aesthetic views are no longer shared by scholars, but he definitely observed and described the characteristics of Japanese art with a sharp eye. Although he mentioned the art of netsuke at the end of the chapter about sculpture, he classified it as belonging to the field of decorative art, and continued: "This was the art form in which the Japanese could free themselves to the greatest extent from religious restrictions and from the Chinese influence. It was this art form in which they could create their own individual voice, which was completely free, childlike and realistic. However, their intellect could not extend beyond the sculpture of characters."

9 When Count Zichy 's study was published, pieces of Japanese art and applied art, netsuke among them, were already accessible not only for visitors of World Fairs in European capitals. Anyone interested in netsuke in Hungary could see them in Pest in the Hungarian National Museum, first in 1871 and then in 1874, in exhibitions of the ethnographic objects collected by the Xántus expedition.