When the West was East

WAM looks at the European influence of Japan's Meji period<

by Leon Nigrosh

TERRIFIC TOKYO: A PANORAMA IN PRINTS At the Worcester Art museum, 55 Salisbury Street, through July 4.]

Examples of Japan's isolation are legion. From repelling attacks by Mongol neighbors to thwarting unsuccessful

attempts by Europeans to bring Catholicism to this remote island nation, Japan's leaders, from the 6th to early 20th centuries, shut out the world -- for the most part. It is the brief time when the Japanese embraced all things Western, from 1868 to 1936, on which the Worcester Art Museum concentrates in its new "Terrific Tokyo" exhibit, which opens this weekend. Prints, paintings, and sculptures completed during the Meji and Taisho periods (1868 to 1926) provide a glimpse of what it was like to witness a Tokyo transformed. Once a large yet desolate town governed by military rule, Tokyo under the Meji ushered in an era fueled by gas and electricity and filled with Western fashions, and home to movie houses, and, of course, a backdrop for the artists who flocked here to study ancient printing techniques that captured a modern landscape.

Fifty woodblock prints were chosen from WAM's permanent collection by curator Elizabeth de Sabato Swinton, who added triptychs lent by the Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Collection to the selection.

The works, produced for the new tourist trade, depict a blooming Japan, after the Tokugawa shogunate (1603 to 1867) had been brought down and replaced by the Emperor Meiji, who came to power as 14-year-old and who eventually oversaw the country's greatest expansion of the arts, literature, and music. The emperor helped organize a democratic government body (the Diet) modeled after British parliamentary, encouraged public education for all children, and saw to it that the latest industrial advances were incorporated into the country's infrastructure.

All of these dramatic changes influenced the Japanese artists of the day, and many of them began to illustrate nishiki-e, or "brocade pictures," which were a cooperative effort, combining the work of publishers, artists, engravers, and printers to bring handmade work to completion.

One such work, drawn by the prolific artist Ando Hiroshige III (1843-1894) and published by Wakasaya Jingoro, is the triptych Illustration of the Tsukiji Hotel, Tokyo produced in 1869. This four-foot-long, colorful image shows the exterior of a new hotel designed in a Western style but decorated with traditional Japanese ceramic tile laid on the diagonal. American and British flags, prominently featured, are indicators of Tokyo's cosmopolitan atmosphere. People in Western garb, along with Chinese in their unique garments and Japanese women in traditional kimonos and geta (wooden platform sandals), are depicted strolling on the wide promenade.

Another print by Hiroshige III shows a view of the Ginza Bricktown (the most prominent boulevard in Tokyo during the Meji), built after the great 1872 fire that nearly destroyed Tokyo. British architect Thomas Waters designed this first Western-style thoroughfare (modeled after London's Regent Street), and the print shows horse-drawn trolleys competing with rickshaws on the wide street. Compare this print with the one produced by Koeisai only eight years later, and you will see how quickly the locals reverted to more traditional architectural styles, with only one brick building in sight.

Nationalist pride reached incredible heights during the Meji Restoration, and that's obvious in two prints made in the early 1890s to commemorate the opening of the newly formed Japanese parliament. One, by Adachi Ginko (active 1874-'97), shows the exterior of the hastily constructed temporary Diet building and features the arrival of the emperor's cortege. Remarkably, the commoners lining the streets are seen standing; prior to the enlightened rule, all subjects had to prostrate themselves face down whenever the emperor passed by. The second print, by Baido Kokunimasu (1868-1912), shows the interior of the Diet, with serious government officials dressed in Western-style clothing.

Not all of these commemorative prints were entirely truthful in their representation of actual events. Watanabe Nobukazu's (1874-1944) brilliantly colored triptych Illustration of the Emperor Leaving the Palace for a Short Trip To Attend a Troop Review at Aoyama depicts a British-built, scarlet colored, gilt-trimmed carriage, but, in a show of patriotic spirit, the artist has the emperor and his wife, Haru-ko, riding side by side in the coach -- just like the British royal family. In truth, the Japanese royal couple always attended important events separately, often on successive days.

While these colorful and complex prints were being churned out to celebrate the new, modern Japan, another style of print was being produced that carried the same message but was more subdued. Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847-1915) worked almost exclusively in shades of black and gray, though he allowed tiny dots of color to intrude when appropriate. His Nihonbashi at Night is a view of the street at night. Pedestrians line the sidewalks as rickshaws and omnibuses fill the roadway, all in the shadows except for the occasional small lantern carried by a stroller or rickshaw runner. Kiyochika shows us the new Toyko with his deft perspective handling of the gas streetlights.

In his Fireworks at Ikenokata Kiyochika again places his figures in deep silhouette, with two boys in a tree above the crowd. Within this traditional scene, he includes the strings of electric lights that outline the distant exposition grounds. His Evening Along the Sumida is executed in the same fashion, drawing light reflected from the river to silhouette a man in traditional robes and a derby, along with a woman in kimono and obi. On the distant shore are factory chimneys and tiny windows illuminated by electric light.

After the close of the Meiji era and Taisho period (which abruptly came to an end because of the Great Depression that came on the heels of the devastating earthquake of September 1, 1923), a number of Japanese artists began to adopt a new style of printmaking, often carving and printing their works themselves. Well aware of the paintings by French Impressionist Claude Monet (1840-1926), Yoshida Hiroshi (1876-1950) created a series of prints of the Sumida River at different times of the day. Using the same carved blocks, he changed the colors and the textures to create distinct moods and lighting effects in each.

Other artists like Kawakami Sumio (1895-1972) began to use their cutting gouges in a more expressive manner to create rough-looking, blocky compositions like Night at Ginza. The most recent print to be included in this exhibit was hand-cut and self-printed by Koizumi Kishio in 1936. It depicts the red gate at the Imperial University where the Tokugawa shogun's daughter went in 1827. Although the shoguns -- and the Meiji -- have passed into history, the red gate remains a reminder of the past. In Kishio's print, the gate is almost totally obscured by the falling snow, an image symbolic of an era never to be retrieved. Not long after this print was produced, militarism raised its head in Japan, and another peaceful era came to an end.

This exhibit offers an opportunity to see classic Japanese woodblock prints, many of which have not been shown publicly. The proficiency of the artists and printmakers -- the intricate carving, the meticulous color registration, and the compositional complexity -- should be marveled at and appreciated, because the scenes they depicted change our understanding of what many still feel is an exotic culture. It portrays Tokyo's inhabitants as contemporaries with their European and American counterparts. Flappers and motorcars compete for attention with trains and electric lights, all of which made Tokyo terrific.

The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call 799-4406.