JAPONISME

   The French term japonisme describes the intense interest in things Japanese that swept across Europe and America between 1860 and 1920. Japanese art objects made their way to France as Japan opened trade with the West in the early 1860s, including ukiyoe landscapes and portraits that caught the eye of such painters as van Gogh, James McNeill Whistler, Paul Klee, and Claude Monet. In the late 19th century, Japanese entertainers, such as Kawakami Otojiro’s theater troupe, performed Japanese music and dance at international expositions, inspiring Claude Debussy and Giacomo Puccini, among others, to incorporate Japanese melodies into their works. Much of the appeal came from the exoticism that surrounded Japan stemming from its isolation during the Tokugawa period and its emergence as a new market and cultural landscape. The momentum of japonisme allowed writers, such as Lafcadio Hearn, who mined the rich folklore of Japan in translations and adaptations, to flourish as they targeted the Western interest in Japanese life and customs.