Extended through February 19! In the late nineteenth century in the bustling port town of Yokohama, a Japanese artist called Ryuho painted startling hanging scrolls using traditional materials-pigments in muted colors, details picked out in gold. The surprise of the paintings is not only that they portray Western men in Japanese costume (with the usual Victorian complement of facial hair), but that they use Western-style shading to eye-catching effect. As seen in the two examples on display in the Asian Galleries as part of Meiji à la Mode: A Modernizing Japan, 1868–1912, they were a perfect solution to the traveler's dilemma-what to buy to impress folks back home? Complementing Taisho Chic, this installation comprises paintings, woodblock prints, and photographs from the Meiji period immediately preceding the Taisho era. The works highlight how some artists responded to the upheaval that accompanied the Japanese rush to become a “modern” nation-an upheaval that included the tumultuous restoration of imperial rule; rapid industrialization and militarization; and adoption of various Western institutions, technologies, and fashions. Many artists adapted to new customers, as when a deft hand added exquisite hand-coloring to stock photographs of kimono-clad women, creating exotic souvenirs for foreigners. Others found success in pushing traditional genres to greater expressionistic impact, as in the almost abstract brushwork of the premier literati painter Tomioka Tessai (1836–1924) or the dramatic compositions of print designer Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839–1892). Another path lay in combining Western naturalism with Japanese subjects and aesthetics, as seen in the images of animals-a winning monkey, fluffy sheep-in works by the preeminent Kyoto nihonga (Japanese style) artist Takeuchi Seiho (1864–1942). Finally, Meiji à la Mode includes two lovely kimono and several sets of kanzashi (hair ornaments) that straddle the Meiji and Taisho periods, generously loaned by collector Joanna Mest.
