View source for 1873 Vienna World's Fair

*''Date: [[1873]]''
*''German: Weltausstellung 1873 Wien''

The [[1873]] Vienna World's Fair was the first in which the [[Meiji government]] participated.<ref>At the [[1867 Paris World's Fair]], British and French intermediaries organized separate pavilions for the [[Tokugawa shogunate]] ("The Government of the Great Prince of Japan") and [[Satsuma han]] ("Government of the Viceroy of Satsuma of Japan").</ref> It is further notable as the first major display of a Japanese garden anywhere in Europe, and the first major venue in which the newly-coined Japanese term ''bijutsu'' 美術 ("art") was used.

A domestic exposition was held by the [[Ministry of Education]] at the [[Yushima Seido|Yushima Seidô]] in Tokyo in [[1872]] as a sort of preparatory event, allowing individuals and institutions a practice-run, so to speak, for the organization and display of Japanese arts, crafts, technology, and so forth at Vienna the following year.<ref>Matsushima Masato, "Japan's Dream of Modern Art," ''Remaking Tradition: Modern Art of Japan from the Tokyo National Museum''. Cleveland Museum of Art (2014), 15-17.</ref>

An extensive Japanese garden was constructed at the Fair, giving many European fairgoers their first-ever opportunity to experience a Japanese garden in person. As the garden was not completed in time for the opening of the fair, this also gave fairgoers a rare opportunity to witness something of how Japanese gardens were constructed. On May 5, 1873, a few days after the opening of the fair, Emperor Franz Joseph and his wife Empress Elisabeth of the Austria-Hungarian Empire visited the garden.<ref>Toshio Watanabe, "How the West Interacted with Japanese Gardens," Ishibashi Lectures, Kyoto University of Art and Design, 12 March 2016.</ref>

Other Japanese items on display at Vienna included ''[[shachi]]'' (rooftop "dolphins") from [[Nagoya castle]], displayed as prime examples of Japanese craftsmanship and design.<ref>Ran Zwigenberg, "Citadels of Modernity: Japan's Castles in War & Peace," talk given at Temple University, Tokyo campus, 12 July 2017.</ref>

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