Japanese export lacquer exerted an influence on European art and decoration quite out of proportion to its physical presence in Europe. The vast amounts shipped from Japan -- mainly in three stages (1590s-1640, 1639-93, 1800-40s) -- demonstrate the need for the study of this beautiful material. Japanese export lacquer is the first full treatment of lacquerware made to European demand, its transportation and the lacquer market in Europe as well as the effect of lacquer and its use in a European context. Trading patterns and its use are described in detail, based on the documentary evidence of Europeans in the Far East, on notes kept by the Portuguese in Japan, on the important and comprehensive archives of the Dutch East India Company and to a lesser extent and for a shorter period, of the English Honourable East India Company, as well as on contemporary comments and inventories within Europe. Full use is made of the sparse Japanese documentation of the trade, only available for the period 1709-11and the early nineteenth century. Reference is also made to additional records kept by American ships' captains and supercargoes from Massachusetts. While the Portuguese seem to have regarded Japanese lacquer as mainly suitable for use as grand gifts, particularly within the Habsburg family network, it is surprising how much of the lacquer for the Portuguese market (the so-called Namban lacquer) survives in Europe, testifying to extensive (undocumented) private trade, as well as the orders of the Society of Jesus. The Dutch used lacquer as gifts and for trade. The English Company never traded in lacquer but was involved in many private transactions. The inter-Asian markets were vital to theDutch, particularly where lacquer was regarded as suitable for gifts to Oriental potentates. This is well documented and descriptions of orders for lacquer elephant howdahs and carrying chairs inform us of what has been lost. Th

A vibrant exploration of the fascinating and complex trade encounters and cross-cultural interactions between the East and West in the early modern period.

Production, Distribution and Appreciation: New Aspects of East Asian Lacquer Ware, edited by Patricia Frick and Annette Kieser, focuses on various aspects of East Asian lacquer art ranging from the 2nd century BC to the 17th century. Recent excavations in China, the distribution of lacquer objects throughout the Eurasian region, the significance of lacquer ware in everyday life, technical aspects of lacquer production in Korea, and the appreciation of Japanese lacquer in Asia and Europe are analysed in six chapters by international experts in the field: Patricia Frick; Annette Kieser; Nanhee Lee; Yan Liu; Margarete Prüch and Anton Schweizer. Production, Distribution and Appreciation: New Aspects of East Asian Lacquer Ware is published in association with the European Association for Asian Art and Archaeology.

An enduring witness to Dutch-Japanese relations is Arita export porcelain made for the Dutch market in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) was instrumental in ordering and distributing a variety of export wares. Private trade also played an important role. This resulted in the importation of large amounts of Japanese porcelain into The Netherlands. While many of these exquisite pieces have been lost over time, numerous examples are still preserved in public and private collections in The Netherlands. The author discusses the variety of export ware and the extraordinary pieces in those collections, many of which are published here for the first time. This survey offers a fascinating insight into a relatively unknown aspect of Dutch-Japanese interaction and is the first book of its kind devoted to this subject in English.

Dating back several thousand years, the art of lacquer is one of the most ancient expressions of Asian culture, and this publication provides an overview of the different kinds of methods and materials used in Cambodia, China, India, Korea, Japan, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. The number of people employed in this ancestral art has fallen dramatically throughout Asia in recent decades, and this book considers the challenges to its survival as well as highlighting the importance of documenting past and modern procedures.

Japan: Courts and Culture tells the story of three centuries of British royal contact with Japan, from 1603 to c.1937, when the exchange of exquisite works of art was central to both diplomatic relations and cultural communication. With discussions of courtly rituals, trade relationships, treaties, and other matters of concern between the two nations, this book provides important historical and political context in addition to granting a new look at the works of art in question. Featuring new research on previously unpublished works, including porcelain, lacquer, armor, embroidery, metalwork, and works on paper, this book showcases the unparalleled craftsmanship of these objects, and the local materials, techniques, and traditions behind them. Japan: Courts and Culture is published to accompany a spectacular exhibition of the same name, which opens at The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, in June 2020. The book's stunning photography, contextual essays, and historical insights offer a highly visual record of a royal narrative and history that has not yet been widely documented.

Are we what we eat? What does food reveal about how we live and how we think of ourselves in relation to others? Why do people have a strong attachment to their own cuisine and an aversion to the foodways of others? In this engaging account of the crucial significance rice has for the Japanese, Rice as Self examines how people use the metaphor of a principal food in conceptualizing themselves in relation to other peoples. Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney traces the changing contours that the Japanese notion of the self has taken as different historical Others--whether Chinese or Westerner--have emerged, and shows how rice and rice paddies have served as the vehicle for this deliberation. Using Japan as an example, she proposes a new cross-cultural model for the interpretation of the self and other.

This Palgrave Pivot explores the social and cultural impact of global trade at a micro-level from around 1600 to 1950. Bringing together the collaborative skills of cultural, social, economic, and art historians, it examines how the diffusion of trade, goods and objects affected people’s everyday lives. The authors tell several stories: of the role played by a host of intermediaries – such as apothecaries, artisans and missionaries who facilitated the process; of objects such as Japanese export lacquer-ware and paintings; of how diverse artistic influences came to be expressed in colonial church architecture in the Philippines; of revolutionary changes wrought on quotidian tastes and preferences, as shown in the interior decoration of private homes in the Dutch East Indies; and of transformations in the smoking and drinking habits of Southeast Asians. The chapters consider the conditions from which emerged new forms of artistic production and transfer, fresh cultural interpretations, and expanded markets for goods, objects and images.

The Irving Collection represents a wide range of styles and techniques from the 13th through the twentieth centuries.