Impact of 19th and early 20th International Expositions on Japaneses arts and crafts
Shinya Maezaki (Professor, Kyoto Women's University)

The talk will deal on the historical backgrounds for Japan to participate the international expositions and how the results of the expositions changed the Japanese arts and crafts of the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. I will also discuss how Japanese designs were incorporated into French art.

Collecting Demons, Conjuring Spirits: Japonisme and Occultism (1880-1900)
François Lachaud (Professor of Japanese Studies, École Française d'Extrême-Orient)

Japonisme was born thanks to a variegated group of persons who, for very different reasons, promoted the arts of Japan. While there is no shortage of research on their patiently-gathered collections, aesthetic choices, roles on the art market, the historic background of their interest in ‘the dark side of Japan’ has often been overlooked on both sides of the Atlantic. This presentation focuses on two lesser-known figures of Japonisme: Clémence d’Ennery (1823-1898) in her ‘demon-haunted’ Parisian hôtel particulier and Percival Lowell (1855-1916), the man who discovered the ‘Valley of Wizards’ in the Dewa Mountains of Northern Japan.

This event is co-organized by Asia Society France and Printemps Asiatique.

M. François Lachaud
Professor, Japanese Studies, Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient

M. Shinya Maezaki
Professor, Kyoto Women's University

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