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

The lacquer collection at the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts runs to approximately one thousand pieces. It contains works from almost every area of Japanese lacquer art and reflects the tastes of many collectors. The collection includes the lacquered artefacts purchased in Japan by János Xántus (1825-1894) during his visit to the country in 1869-70.

3 As a member of an Austro-Hungarian expedition to Japan, Xántus purchased characteristically '•ethnic" artefacts, including older and up-todate lacquer pieces, in order to show the public (and especially the craftsmen) at home the history of Japanese handicrafts. The Museum's lacquer holdings include the collection of combs (kushi) and hairpins (kanzashi) assembled by Attila Szemere (18591905). Szemere probably arrived in Japan in the middle of 1883.

4 He stayed mainly in Yokohama, returning to Hungary in 1884. After arriving back, he sold his collection of Japanese lacquer to the Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest for 7000 crowns.

5 In 1884 Szemére read a paper in Budapest on Japanese lacquer art.

6 In 1907 Count Péter Vay ( 1864-1948) - a titular bishop - purchased art works in Japan on behalf of the Hungarian state. It is from the Vay collection that the Museum's lacquered Buddhist sculptures derive, although he collected boxes and //?ros as well. World Travellers in Yokohama The second half of the 19

,h century witnessed enormous improvements in the conditions for travel. The opening of the Suez Canal (1869), the introduction of regular steamship services across the Pacific (1867) and not least the growth of the railway network in the United States of America made journeys across long distances more rapid and more comfortable. By the 1870s a journey around the world had become accessible to a relatively broad section of the population, and the "Grand Tour" was no longer the privilege of aristocrats only. Guides were published in great number, accounts of journeys were popular and narratives were compiled using the diaries of travellers. The popular Jules Verne novel Around the World in Eighty Days reflects the mood of the time.

7 In 1851 the Great Exhibition opened in London's Crystal Palace. It was the first of a series of world exhibitions destined to satisfy the comprehensive demand for knowledge that characterised the second half of the 19

th century. Shows staged in various world cities attracted visitors in large number. These exhibitions prompted very many to take up the traveller's staff themselves, in order to acquire personal experience of unknown cultures and the wonders of nature. Active knowledge of the histories and cultures of regions outside Europe and the USA, along with an understanding of their place in the history and culture of the world as a whole, formed an important part of the 19

th century's historicist world-view. Japanese artefacts selected by Europeans and reflecting European taste featured at world exhibitions as early as 1851

8 and 1862. A total of 623 artefacts - prints, books, bronze objects, porcelain, and lacquered objects - were displayed at the London World Exhibition of 1862. This was the first major collection of Japanese artefacts seen by the general public of Europe. From as early as 1867 exhibition material selected by the Japanese could be seen. Japonisme, which became a leading fashion at this time, contributed in no small degree to a greater desire to visit Japan. Interest in Japanese history and Japanese artefacts was stimulated by the activity of the Iwakura mission,

9 which lasted from November 1871 until September 1873, and also by reports deriving from the ever-growing number of Japanese sent to Europe on scholarships. In 1878 Sir David Wedderburn wrote: "A traveller returning home from a tour of circumnavigation will (if I may judge from my own experience) be asked more questions about Japan than about any other foreign land, and will hear the strongest expressions of a desire to visit that country."

10 We should not overlook economic interests either. By the second half of the 19

th century West European economic influence was growing in the Asian regions. In 1854, one year after the arrival of Commodore Perry and his "black