11Story

08 May 2009

The Vienna World Expedition 1873

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 Vienna World Exhibition 1873

 

In his speech before the Tennō on the ratification of the amity treaty in 1872, the Austrian envoy Heinrich von Calice announced Japan’s official invitation to the World Exposition planned for the following year.   A Japanese commission was quickly formed, whose task it was to search the entire country for suitable representative objects for the Exposition. Under the direction of Sano Tsunetami, a samurai from Saga named the first Japanese diplomatic chargé d’affaires at the Viennese Imperial court, the nearly 80-member commission of diplomats, bureaucrats, handworkers, and experts embarked for Vienna in January 1873. Foreign advisors and translators accompanied them, including Heinrich von Siebold and the photographer Michael Moser.   In its first official participation at a World Exposition, Japan sought to present itself as a commercial and future world power, sending more than 6,600 objects to Vienna. Most were produced specifically for this purpose. Traditional Japanese art was not to be shown, but rather items displaying contemporary Japanese taste or accommodating the European public. The Viennese visitors were enthusiastic, and a proper bout of Japonisme commenced.   One of two large, detailed architectural models, today preserved in the Museum of Ethnology, will be presented in its entirety for the first time since the World Exposition.

 

 

 

 

Japanese Dolls from the Vienna World Exposition 1873 Collection of the University of Vienna’s Institute for East Asian Studies, Japanese Department, Inv.-nos: 197-212 Vienna World Fair 1873 © Museum of Ethnology, Vienna

 

 

These Japanese dolls, first exhibited at the Vienna World Exposition in 1873, form the highlight of the collection assembled by the University of Vienna’s Institute of East Asian Studies/Japanese Department. Their delicately modeled, expressive features and their clothes, faithful replicas of contemporary fashion, reflect Japanese society during the Edo period (1600-1868), which had ended a mere five years before the World Exposition in Vienna was held.   The Tokugawa shogunate had been succeeded by the Meiji Restoration, marked by its attempts to modernize society. The larger dolls at the back on the right represent the four ranks according to the Confucian ideals that had entered Japan from China during the Tokugawa shogunate: samurai, peasant, craftsman and merchant.   The three dolls at the back on the right represent figures outside the system: a noble courtier, a Buddhist priest, and a courtesan wearing a sumptuous robe (interestingly, or ironically, the German text identifies her as the wife of a samurai wearing a state robe).

 

 

Modell of the barn (one part of the whole farm house essemble) from the world exhibtion 1873 © Museum of Ethnology, Vienna

 

 

 

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