page_title: Khalili Collection of Japanese Art
section_title: Background: the Meiji Era
hierarchical_section_title: Khalili Collection of Japanese Art / Background: the Meiji Era
caption_attribution_description: English: Pair of Samurai Figures, Japan, 1890.From the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Japanese Art of the Meiji Period.
context_page_description: The Khalili Collection of Japanese Art is a private collection of decorative art from Meiji-era Japan, assembled by the British-Iranian scholar, collector and philanthropist Nasser D. Khalili. With more than 1,400 objects in total, it is comparable only to the collection of the Japanese imperial family in terms of size and quality. The collection includes metalwork, enamels, ceramics, and lacquered objects, including works by artists of the imperial court that were exhibited at the Great Exhibitions of the late 19th century. Rather than covering the whole range of Meiji-era decorative art, Khalili has focused on objects of the highest technical and artistic quality. He observed that Japanese arts were less well-documented than European arts of the same period, despite being technically superior: "Whilst one could argue it is relatively easy to replicate a Fabergé, to replicate the work of the Japanese master is nigh on impossible." The collection is one of eight assembled, published, and exhibited by Khalili, and one of three that feature art works from Japan, along with the Khalili Collection of Kimono and the Khalili Collection of Enamels of the World.
context_section_description: The Meiji era was a period of modernisation and industrialisation, during which Japan opened itself to the world. It saw a rapid introduction of Western culture to Japan, and also of Japanese culture into Europe and America. The Khalili Collection has been used in research to study how Japanese art was widely available in Europe during the late 19th and early 20th century, and influenced European art, especially Vincent van Gogh and the impressionists.
  During the embrace of Western influences, demand for Japanese art declined within Japan itself. At the same time, art objects came to be a large part of Japan's exports, actively promoted by the government which wanted to reduce the country's trade deficit with the West. The government took an active interest in the standard of art exported, exerting quality control via the Hakurankai Jimukyoku (Exhibition Bureau). The major exhibitions to which Japan sent the best examples of its arts and crafts included the Vienna World Exhibition of 1873, the Centennial International Exhibition of 1876 in Philadelphia, the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 and the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1901 in St. Louis.
caption: Pair of samurai figures, bronze with details in gold, silver and shakudō, 1890
exif: {"Image SubfileType": "Full-resolution Image", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image RowsPerStrip": "3181", "Image StripByteCounts": "28921652", "Image XResolution": "350", "Image YResolution": "350", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.6.12", "Image DateTime": "2013:06:24 17:31:59", "Image ExifOffset": "182", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2004:06:02 10:27:20", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2004:06:02 10:27:20", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00"}