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Horatio
Colony Museum's Exhibition: 'Things Japanese: Celebrating
150 Years' through October 15, 2008
*
The opening of Japan to the world for cultural and economic trade happened
150 years ago. The end of isolation set in motion a tsunami-like flow
of goods to the West, that culminated in a love affair with all things
Japanese. Mania for exotic Oriental objects reached it’s height
in the 1880’s but continued for decades.
* The craze spread to influence art, interior design, fashion, advertising, landscape design, literature and theater. Fashionable ‘artistic’ homes were appointed with Japanese fine goods, from lacquered folding screens to fans, paper lanterns and delicate porcelain. The work of Impressionist artists, including Vincent van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Mary Cassat, was profoundly influenced by Japanese motifs and design. Victorian ladies donned flowing silk kimonos to sit for portraiture by the likes of James Abbot McNeil Whistler, George Hendrik Breitner and James Tissot.
* The Horatio Colony House Museum in Keene is celebrating this world-changing event by displaying examples of the kinds of Japanese objects that triggered the 19th century craze. All are from the museum’s collection, some having never been exhibited before.
Many of the pieces date to the 19th century, particularly traceable within a time frame spanning from the end of the Edo era to the beginning of the Meiji period. The Edo period (1603 -1868) saw 265 years of stability under the governance of the Edo, or Tokugawa, shogunate. The term “Edo” (present day Tokyo) comes from the capital city that housed the shogunate. The peace and security of the times fostered great economic and cultural growth. During the Meiji Restoration (1868-1912), industrialization and modernization, resulting from contact with the West, brought great changes to Japanese culture. For example, photography and Western engraving techniques effectively ended the careers of traditional Japanese printmaking artists.
* The exhibit will feature triptych woodblock prints by some of the better known printmakers, including pieces by Kitagawa Utamaro, Utagawa Toyokuni, Utagawa Kunisada and Toyohara Kunichika. The prints are extraordinary examples of ukiyo-e, or ‘pictures of the floating world’, portraying bijinga and Kabuki scenes. Bijinga were lovely women depicted wearing in traditional kimonos. Kabuki refers to the Japanese theater of the time period. Women in finery and theatrical scenes were two of the central themes of the ukiyo-e genre.
Fashion objects on display will include a child’s kimono, silk fabric, fabulous fans, and metal cigarette cases. Inexpensive art objects and functional items, Japanese fans became ubiquitous in the Victorian era. They kept one cool in the summer and were often hung on a wall or ceiling to decorate a room. Soft flowing silk kimonos were popular with Victorian ladies, either as dressing gowns, or as additional garments to be worn over top of dresses.
* Some of the decorative pieces in the exhibit, originally created to enliven interiors, include a painted folding screen, delicately fashioned metal vases, carved ivory miniatures and fine porcelain dishes. Folding screens were both aesthetic and practical. Unmistakable works of art, they also functioned as movable free- standing partitions. Japanese porcelain was sometimes preferred to Chinese. The Japanese was generally simpler in shape, but more pleasing in profile, and the painting usually more elegantly rendered.
* The exhibit, THINGS JAPANESE: Celebrating 150 Years, will run from May 1 to October 15, 2008. It can be viewed during regular house tour hours, Wednesday through Saturday from 11:00 to 4:00. There is no admission charge.
* Additional programs to enhance the exhibit experience include workshops in Japanese calligraphy and origami, as well as a traditional Japanese Koto concert. Dates and times for each will be posted on the museum’s web site.
* The Horatio Colony House Museum is located at 199 Main Street in Keene, New Hampshire. The museum, a stately Federal style house, was the home of the Colony family, prominent regional 19th and 20th century industrialists. Original family furnishings and fabulous collections offer a gracious view of a vanishing lifestyle speaking of culture, refinement and travel.
* Parking is in Saint Bernard’s Church lot next door to the museum.
* For information call 603 352-0460 or visit the museum’s web site.
* The craze spread to influence art, interior design, fashion, advertising, landscape design, literature and theater. Fashionable ‘artistic’ homes were appointed with Japanese fine goods, from lacquered folding screens to fans, paper lanterns and delicate porcelain. The work of Impressionist artists, including Vincent van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Mary Cassat, was profoundly influenced by Japanese motifs and design. Victorian ladies donned flowing silk kimonos to sit for portraiture by the likes of James Abbot McNeil Whistler, George Hendrik Breitner and James Tissot.
* The Horatio Colony House Museum in Keene is celebrating this world-changing event by displaying examples of the kinds of Japanese objects that triggered the 19th century craze. All are from the museum’s collection, some having never been exhibited before.
Many of the pieces date to the 19th century, particularly traceable within a time frame spanning from the end of the Edo era to the beginning of the Meiji period. The Edo period (1603 -1868) saw 265 years of stability under the governance of the Edo, or Tokugawa, shogunate. The term “Edo” (present day Tokyo) comes from the capital city that housed the shogunate. The peace and security of the times fostered great economic and cultural growth. During the Meiji Restoration (1868-1912), industrialization and modernization, resulting from contact with the West, brought great changes to Japanese culture. For example, photography and Western engraving techniques effectively ended the careers of traditional Japanese printmaking artists.
* The exhibit will feature triptych woodblock prints by some of the better known printmakers, including pieces by Kitagawa Utamaro, Utagawa Toyokuni, Utagawa Kunisada and Toyohara Kunichika. The prints are extraordinary examples of ukiyo-e, or ‘pictures of the floating world’, portraying bijinga and Kabuki scenes. Bijinga were lovely women depicted wearing in traditional kimonos. Kabuki refers to the Japanese theater of the time period. Women in finery and theatrical scenes were two of the central themes of the ukiyo-e genre.
Fashion objects on display will include a child’s kimono, silk fabric, fabulous fans, and metal cigarette cases. Inexpensive art objects and functional items, Japanese fans became ubiquitous in the Victorian era. They kept one cool in the summer and were often hung on a wall or ceiling to decorate a room. Soft flowing silk kimonos were popular with Victorian ladies, either as dressing gowns, or as additional garments to be worn over top of dresses.
* Some of the decorative pieces in the exhibit, originally created to enliven interiors, include a painted folding screen, delicately fashioned metal vases, carved ivory miniatures and fine porcelain dishes. Folding screens were both aesthetic and practical. Unmistakable works of art, they also functioned as movable free- standing partitions. Japanese porcelain was sometimes preferred to Chinese. The Japanese was generally simpler in shape, but more pleasing in profile, and the painting usually more elegantly rendered.
* The exhibit, THINGS JAPANESE: Celebrating 150 Years, will run from May 1 to October 15, 2008. It can be viewed during regular house tour hours, Wednesday through Saturday from 11:00 to 4:00. There is no admission charge.
* Additional programs to enhance the exhibit experience include workshops in Japanese calligraphy and origami, as well as a traditional Japanese Koto concert. Dates and times for each will be posted on the museum’s web site.
* The Horatio Colony House Museum is located at 199 Main Street in Keene, New Hampshire. The museum, a stately Federal style house, was the home of the Colony family, prominent regional 19th and 20th century industrialists. Original family furnishings and fabulous collections offer a gracious view of a vanishing lifestyle speaking of culture, refinement and travel.
* Parking is in Saint Bernard’s Church lot next door to the museum.
* For information call 603 352-0460 or visit the museum’s web site.
of Asian visual and expressive arts to create peace and prosperity.