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.[1] 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 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.[2]
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.[3]
Other Japanese items on display at Vienna included shachi (rooftop "dolphins") from Nagoya castle, displayed as prime examples of Japanese craftsmanship and design.[4]
References
- ↑ 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").
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Toshio Watanabe, "How the West Interacted with Japanese Gardens," Ishibashi Lectures, Kyoto University of Art and Design, 12 March 2016.
- ↑ Ran Zwigenberg, "Citadels of Modernity: Japan's Castles in War & Peace," talk given at Temple University, Tokyo campus, 12 July 2017.
