Japan and Britain After 1859: Creating Cultural Bridges

24 The price of seclusionThe inspiration for the Intercolonial Exhibition of Melbourne in 1875came from Sir Redmond Barry (1813–80), an entrepreneurial figure who hademigrated to Victoria from England as a young man. Barry, as President ofthe Commissioners of the state of Victoria, had been much involved withthe exhibits from Victoria that had been shown at the InternationalExhibition in London in 1862.In Australia, and in other colonies, there was an old, established traditionfor local Agricultural Societies to organise, from time to time, fairs, at whichnew seeds for improved agriculture and new machinery were displayed.Although they had a serious purpose, these were celebratory occasions forfarmers and their families, and had become much appreciated get-togethers,high points of the hard-working farmers’year.On Barry’s initiative, the idea for the Intercolonial Exhibition, as aprecursor of the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition planned for 1876, wasmounted. Invitations to exhibit were sent to ‘the inhabitants of all theBritish, French and Dutch possessions in Australasia’.Barry also wrote to Sir Harry Parkes, British Minister in Tokyo, with thesuggestion that the Japanese government be invited to participate. Japan wasnot indeed a colony but Parkes was a forceful figure and eventually theJapanese government made a positive response. They would not directlyinvolve themselves in Melbourne but they would send representativesthrough the agency of the Exhibitions Bureau, set up in Japan immediatelyafter the Vienna Exposition of 1873. In addition any individual Japanesewho wished to participate was to be encouraged to do so.The Exhibitions Bureau (Kangyoryo) sent representatives, who stayed inAustralia for many months, and who travelled widely. It seems clear that theJapanese were looking around the Australian states with a view to futuretrade. It is worth noting that the Yokohama Specie Bank opened branches inSydney and Melbourne in May 1882, no doubt because of the businessavailable through the Sydney and Melbourne exhibitions. These closed inMay 1883. The Sydney office was reopened in August 1915 and became abranch office in 1919. 27But the most startling feature of the Japanese presence in Melbourne in1875 was the blatant commercialism. The underlying objectives of the greatexhibition movement had always been commercial but they were not usuallyas obvious as at Melbourne (see Chapter 4 on export ware). Most of thecommentators in Melbourne were enthusiastic about the romantic Japaneseexhibits. Clearly the Australians in Victoria were delighted that Melbournehad attracted such an exotic exhibitor.Under the heading ‘Advance Victoria’one Melbourne newspaper exulted:That the young Colony of Victoria should be recognised by the rulerof one of the oldest empires of the world is a fact upon which wecannot congratulate ourselves too much. As the years roll on, ourtrade will revert to those countries which are nearest to us, and there-