11Story

08 May 2009

The early Collections before the Opening of Japan

Made in Japan

Contents - The Early Collections before the Opening of Japan - The Austro-Hungarian East Asia Expedition 1868-1871 - The Vienna World Exhibition 1873 - The Drasche-Wartinberg Collection 1877 - The Troll Collection 1886 - The Siebold Collection 1889     - Este Collection 1893 - The Kreiner Collection 1964, 1966 and 1969 - The Haga Collection 1965 and 1969 - The Kubō Collection 1987−1989 - The Collections of Curators - HARU – SPRING

 

 

The Early Collections before the Opening of Japan

 

Early examples from the collections of the Museum of Ethnology demonstrate that Japanese ethnographic objects had already been dispersed throughout the world – as far as Brazil and Europe – before the opening of Japan in 1853-54, probably over Nagasaki and the Chinese ports of Canton and Macao. The pair of straw sandals, ascribed to collection of the famous Leiden botanist Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin (1727−1817), probably represents the earliest Japanese object acquired by the museum. It probably came from Dejima, the Dutch settlement and trading station in the bay of Nagasaki, and entered the botanist’s possession through Dutch colleagues or sailors whom he met, either in his travels or in Europe. None of the reports from members of the Brazil expedition (1817−1835), which provided the Museum with its renowned Natterer collection of early Brazilian ethnographic objects, indicate that the return route to Europe included East Asia, although the voyagers brought back eleven Japanese artifacts with them. These objects, with several Chinese pieces from the same collection, could have come from Macao and Canton. They probably reached Rio de Janeiro through Chinese contract laborers, who were active there at the time in the tea plantations of the botanic gardens.   The aristocrat Karl Alexander von Hügel (1797−1870) brought 200 East Asian objects from his world voyage, largely from China: Hügel visited Canton and Macao in early 1835. Although he did not reach Japan, his collection includes six Japanese objects, among them the bamboo baskets exhibited.

 

 

Pair of straw sandals © Museum of Ethnology, Vienna

 

 

Japanese bamboo baskets set © Museum of Ethnology, Vienna

 

 

 

 

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