Japonisme is a French term that refers to the popularity and influence of Japanese art and design among a number of Western European artists in the nineteenth century following the forced reopening of foreign trade with Japan in 1858. Japonisme was first described by French art critic and collector Philippe Burty in 1872.
Young Ladies Looking at Japanese Objects by the painter James Tissot in 1869 is a representation of the popular curiosity about all Japanese items that started with the opening of the country in the Meiji Restoration of the 1860s.
Window of La Pagode (Paris), built in 1896
Commode (commode à vantaux) in the Louis XVI style, made in France, using Japanese lacquer panels, c.1790, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Kakiemon teapot, an example of Japanese export porcelain, 1670–1690, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Japanese art consists of a wide range of art styles and media that includes ancient pottery, sculpture, ink painting and calligraphy on silk and paper, ukiyo-e paintings and woodblock prints, ceramics, origami, bonsai, and more recently manga and anime. It has a long history, ranging from the beginnings of human habitation in Japan, sometime in the 10th millennium BCE, to the present day.
Woodblock print The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai, Edo period
Scene from the Genji Monogatari Emaki, Heian period, early 12th century (National Treasure)
Middle Jōmon vase; circa 3000-2000 BCE
Jar; middle to late Jomon period; 35th-11th century BCE