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Japonisme and Gothic Revivalism
Between the 1630s and 1850s there had been only sporadic trade, through
the Dutch East India Company, between Japan and the Western World.
Due to this very limited contact, the West had remained almost completely
ignorant of Japanese society and culture, while Japan had developed in an
insular fashion without significant interference or outside influence, and
therefore had existed largely unchanged for centuries.
In 1854, after the initial trade negotiations, the West was formally
introduced to the wares of Japan when around 600 objects were exhibited in
London at the Old Watercolour Society. This show, although successful in
inspiring a small group of British artists and designers, was however visited
by only a select élite part of society. It wasn’t until 1862 at the International
Exhibition of Arts and Industry that Japanese art, design and crafts were first
displayed on a comprehensive scale to mainstream public.
In 1851 during the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations it
had been the Gothic Revivalist A. W. N. Pugin’s Mediaeval Court that had
attracted blockbuster crowds. In 1862 at the world’s second exposition,
housed at the resituated Crystal Palace at Sydenham Hill, *
the Japanese
* The Crystal Palace, designed by Joseph Paxton for the inaugural international exposition at
London’s Hyde Park, was intended to be employed as a temporary structure for the 1851 show,
after which it was dismantled. However, due to public petition to preserve it, it was repositioned as
a permanent building at Sydenham Hill in 1854 only to be destroyed by fire in 1936.
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