The government took an active interest in the art export market, promoting Japanese arts at a succession of
world's fairs, beginning with the
1873 Vienna World's Fair. As well as heavily funding the fairs, the government took an active role organizing how Japan's culture was presented to the world. It created a semi-public company — the (First Industrial Manufacturing Company) — to promote and commercialize exports of art and established the (Exhibition Bureau) to maintain quality standards. In Europe and America, the new availability of Japanese art led to a fascination for Japanese culture; a craze known in Europe as
Japonisme. Imperial patronage, government sponsorship, promotion to new audiences, and Western technology combined to foster an era of Japanese artistic innovation. In the decorative arts, Japanese artists reached new levels of technical sophistication. Today, Masayuki Murata owns more than 10,000 Meiji art works and is one of the most enthusiastic collectors. From that time, most of the excellent works of Meiji Art were bought by foreign collectors and only a few of them remained in Japan, but because he bought back many works from foreign countries and opened the
Kiyomizu Sannenzaka Museum, the study and reevaluation of Meiji Art rapidly advanced in Japan from the 21st century.
Nasser Khalili is also one of the world's most dedicated collectors of Meiji art, and
his collection encompasses many categories of Meiji art. The
Japanese Imperial Family also owns excellent works of Meiji Art, some of which were donated to the state and are now stored in the
Museum of the Imperial Collections.
Enamels During the Meiji era, Japanese
cloisonné enamel reached a technical peak, producing items more advanced than any that had existed before. The period from 1890 to 1910 was known as the "Golden age" of Japanese enamels. Artists experimented with pastes and with the firing process to produce ever larger blocks of enamel, with less need for
cloisons (enclosing metal strips). During this period, enamels with a design unique to Japan, in which flowers, birds and insects were used as themes, became popular. Designs also increasingly used areas of blank space. The two most famous enamelers of this era were
Namikawa Yasuyuki and
Namikawa Sōsuke, whose family names sound the same but who were not related. Namikawa Sōsuke promoted his work as technically innovative and adopted a style resembling fine paintings. Namikawa Yasuyuki was more conservative, opting for geometrical patterns but gradually becoming more pictorial during his career. Along with the two Namikawa, the
Ando Cloisonné Company has produced many high-quality cloisonné works. Namikawa Yasuyuki's
Vase with Birds and Flowers of the Four Seasons is one of the finest examples of cloisonné from this era. It won a gold medal at the
1900 Paris Exposition and was designated as an
Important Cultural Property in 2025. Vase with Birds and Flowers of the Four Seasons, Namikawa Yasuyuki, 1899, 四季花鳥図花瓶, 並河靖之.jpg|
Vase with Birds and Flowers of the Four Seasons, Namikawa Yasuyuki, 1899、
Museum of the Imperial Collections Lacquerware panel by
Shibata Zeshin, 1888–1890 Gold- or silver-decorated lacquerwares had been popular in the Edo period but fell out of favor in the early nineteenth-century due to economic hardship. The Meiji era saw a renewed interest in lacquer as artists developed new designs and experimented with new textures and finishes. Foremost among these was
Shibata Zeshin, who has been called "Japan's greatest lacquerer". The appeal of his highly original style was in the choice of motifs and subject matter rather than embedded gold and silver. He placed lacquer panels in frames, imitating Western oil paintings. Other notable lacquer artists of the 19th century include Nakayama Komin and Shirayama Shosai, both of whom, in contrast with Zeshin, maintained a classical style that owed a lot to Japanese and Chinese landscape art.
Maki-e, decorating the lacquer in gold or silver dust, was the most common technique for quality lacquerware in this period. Lacquer from Japanese workshops was recognized as technically superior to what could be produced anywhere else in the world.
Metalwork At the start of the Meiji era, Japanese metalwork was almost totally unknown outside the country, unlike lacquer and porcelain which had previously been exported. Metalwork was connected to Buddhist practice, for example in the use of bronze for temple bells and incense cauldrons, so there were fewer opportunities for metalworkers once Buddhism was displaced as the state religion. International exhibitions brought Japanese cast bronze to a new foreign audience, attracting strong praise.
Suzuki Chokichi, a leading producer of cast bronze for international exhibition, became director of the Kiritsu Kosho Kaisha from 1874 to the company's dissolution in 1891. In 1896 he was appointed Artist to the Imperial Household. The works of Chokichi and his contemporaries took inspiration from late Edo period carvings and prints, combining and sometimes exaggerating traditional design elements in new ways to appeal to the export market. The past history of
samurai weaponry equipped Japanese metalworkers to create metallic finishes in a wide range of colors. By combining and finishing copper, silver and gold in different proportions, they created specialized alloys including
shakudō and
shibuichi. With this variety of alloys and finishes, an artist could give the impression of full-color decoration. Some of these metalworkers were appointed Artists to the Imperial Household, including Kano Natsuo, Unno Shomin, Namekawa Sadakatsu, and Jomi Eisuke II.
Porcelain , Japan's porcelain industry was well-established at the start of the Meiji era, but the mass-produced wares were not known for their elegance. During this era, technical and artistic innovations turned porcelain into one of the most internationally successful Japanese decorative art forms. The career of porcelain artist
Makuzu Kōzan is an archetype for the trajectory of Meiji art. He was passionate about preserving traditional influences but adopted new technologies from the West. He was an entrepreneur as well as an artist, organizing a workshop with many artisans and actively promoting his work at international exhibitions, travelling extensively in Europe. As his career went on, he adopted more Western influences on his decoration, while his works shaped Western perceptions of Japanese design. Underglaze blue painting on porcelain was well-established in Japan, and the Kozan workshop transformed this practice, combining multiple underglaze colors on a single item and introducing more subtle graduations of color.
Satsuma ware was a name originally given to pottery from
Satsuma province, elaborately decorated with
gilt and enamel. These wares were highly praised in the West. Seen in the West as distinctively Japanese, this style actually owed a lot to imported pigments and Western influences and had been created with export in mind. Workshops in many cities raced to produce this style to satisfy demand from Europe and America, often producing quickly and cheaply. So, the term "Satsuma ware" came to be associated not with a place of origin but with lower-quality ware created purely for export. Despite this, artists such as
Yabu Meizan and
Makuzu Kōzan maintained the highest artistic standards while also successfully exporting. From 1876 to 1913, Kōzan won prizes at 51 exhibitions, including the
World's fair and the National Industrial Exhibition.
Ivory carving . In the Meiji period, Japanese clothes began to be westernized and the number of people who wore
kimono decreased, so the craftsmen who made
netsuke and
kiseru with ivory and wood lost their demand. Therefore, they tried to create a new field, ivory sculptures for interior decoration, and many elaborate works were exported to foreign countries or purchased by the
Imperial Family. In particular, the works of
Ishikawa Komei and
Asahi Gyokuzan won praise in Japan.
Textiles The 1902 edition of
Encyclopædia Britannica wrote, "In no branch of applied art does the decorative genius of Japan show more attractive results than that of textile fabrics, and in none has there been more conspicuous progress during recent years. [...] Kawashima of Kyoto [...] inaugurated the departure a few years ago by copying a
Gobelin, but it may safely be asserted that no Gobelin will bear comparison with the pieces now produced in Japan". Very large, colorful pictorial works were being produced in Kyoto. Embroidery had become an art form in its own right, adopting a range of pictorial techniques such as
chiaroscuro and
aerial perspective.
Military music The very first stage of Western adaptation in the Meiji period is associated with the military field. A little before the reopening of Japan the first military academy based on Dutch model was founded in
Nagasaki where, alongside the military training, military music was taught, since it was acknowledged to be an important component of the martial arts. The first military band, called kotekitai, consisted of
woodwind instruments and
drums, was organized there. Gradually, Western music became an integral part of the Japanese culture where the importance of Western music was undertaken as a part of a social project. The military bands played prominent role in the society. That included public concerts of Western music, which were held in a famous
Rokumeikan Hall and
Hibiya Open-Air stage in
Tokyo, performing marches, patriotic music and European composers’ works (
Richard Wagner,
Charles Gounod,
Peter Tchaikovsky). With the contribution of foreign and Japanese authors, the first military music score collections were completed and published. In the military field, the Japanese conducting school was formed, the founders of which were English, French and German cultural figures such as
John William Fenton,
Charles Leroux, and
Franz Eckert. Under their leadership, the first Japanese military conductors were raised: Suketsune Nakamura and Yoshitoyo Yotsumoto. The educational reforms were led by
Isawa Shūji (1851–1917) and
Luther Whiting Mason (1828–1896). In 1880, the Music Research Institute in Tokyo (Ongaku Torishirabe Gakari), headed by Izawa Shuji, was founded. The Institute had three main tasks: 1) to introduce compulsory music teaching in schools, to introduce Western-style songs; 2) to train music teachers for the further development of professional musical activities; 3) to create music score collections for children, in which Japanese and Western style music elements could be combined. Thus, the first music scores "The First Collection for Primary School" was published in 1881. The newly educated music teachers organized lessons in singing, music theory, playing musical instruments (
koto,
kokyū,
piano,
organ and
violin). In 1887, the Music Research Institute was reformed into Tokyo Academy of Music, which gave the Institution a new status and contributed to its further development. Western music was regarded as an essential contributory factor for modernization. The new curriculum was improved, and the number and quality of the musical events increased. Tokyo Academy of Music became the first Western-style music educational establishment in Japan. This was the nascence of schools teaching composition in the Western style in Japan, the genesis of an opera tradition in Japan, and laid the foundations for the Japanese formal tradition of familiarization with Western music. ==Conversion tables==