Virtual Travel and Fantasies of Asia
From the 17th to the 20th century, printed materials that depicted Japan’s culture and history shaped Western fantasies of Asia, constructing descriptions that blurred fact and fiction. Through these objects, virtual travel, the concept of journeying to another place through imagination, was made possible for Europeans and Americans alike. Japan also capitalized on print media, seeking to reconstruct its self-image as modern and legitimize its global relevance in the 20th century. These books, fashion plates, and inventive illustrations reveal the breadth of cultural dialogue between East and West, offering visions of Japan in which curiosity, exoticization, and national identity came together.
______________________________________________________________________
Arnoldus Montanus (ca. 1625–1683)
Gedenkwaerdige gesantschappen der Oost-Indische maatschappy in’t Vereenigde Nederland, aan de kaisaren van Japan (Atlas Japannensis [Japanese Atlas])
Amsterdam, Netherlands: J. Meurs, 1669
Call Number: Summerfield E238
The richly illustrated Atlas Japannensis by Arnoldus Montanus is one of the earliest European publications on Japan. Many of its images were based on secondhand sources, such as the fantastical depiction of the Buddhist deity Avalokiteshvara (J. Kannon) on page 377, adapted from China Illustrata by Jesuit priest Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680). Such creatively embellished imagery reveals how visual fantasies of Asia circulated in Europe. Atlas Japannensis continued to inspire new interpretations in prints, paintings, and decorative arts, blurring the line between copying and imagination.
______________________________________________________________________
Engelbert Kaempfer (1651–1716), et al.
Histoire naturelle, civile, et ecclesiastique de l’empire du Japon (The Natural, Civil, and Ecclesiastical History of the Empire of Japan)
The Hague, Netherlands: Chez P. Grosse, & J. Neaulme, 1732
Call Number: Ellis Omnia B367
Engelbert Kaempfer, a physician with the Dutch East India Company, stayed in Nagasaki from 1690 to 1692, where he gained firsthand knowledge of Japanese history and culture. His manuscript on Japan, written in Germany, was first published in English in 1727 and later translated into other languages. In the frontispiece of the French edition, a globe showing Japan is flanked by two nymphs, while the hollyhock crest of the Tokugawa government adorns the curtain above.
______________________________________________________________________
Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796–1866)
“Kooplieden en Scheepsvolk” (Merchants and Sailors)
Nippon
Wurzburg, Leipzig: L. Woerl, 1897
Call Number: DS809. S56
German naturalist Philipp Franz von Siebold introduced Europe to Japan and Korea through his encyclopedic work Nippon, first published in 1852, which documented Japan but also surrounding regions, such as Karafuto (Sakhalin), Ryukyu (Okinawa), and Ainu territories (Hokkaido). In addition, based on firsthand encounters with Korean castaways in Japan, Siebold documented detailed observations of the Koreans’ physical appearance, clothing, and customs. This illustration captures his 1828 meeting with six shipwrecked Koreans. Blending ethnography and natural history, Nippon functioned as a “virtual journey” that helped shape Western conceptions of East Asia.
______________________________________________________________________
Hasegawa Takejirō (1835–1915); Sensai Eitaku (1843–1890)
Urashima, the Fisher-Boy; My Lord Bag-O’-Rice; Momotaro
Tokyo: Hasegawa Takejirō, 1885–1887
Call Numbers: B17050, B17057, B17043
Amid an evolving woodblock print industry in late 19th-century Japan, publisher Hasegawa Takejirō attained success through his inventive Japanese fairytale series translated into English. These three illustrated books made of woodblock-printed crepe paper blended Euro-American and Japanese storytelling traditions to help make Japanese folktales familiar to a Western audience. Accessible at world fairs and as souvenirs at Japanese bookstores, these small books created a fantastical view of Japan for those unable to travel there themselves.
______________________________________________________________________
Paul Louis de Giafferri (b. 1886)
The History of the Feminine Costume of the World: From the Year 5318 B. C. to Our Century: China, Japan, Egypt, Assyria, Persia, India, Greece, Rome, Orient; Part II: Japan
New York, Foreign Publications, Inc., 1926–1927
Call Number: G252
In response to expanding interactions between the West and Japan in the early 20th century, artists and writers collected, reinterpreted, and published the new information being exchanged. De Giafferri’s interpretation of women’s clothing from Japan features adaptations of kimonos, Buddhist dress, and hairstyles from different time periods. While highly imaginative in some cases, textile designers, students, and enthusiasts could make use of this book for reference, entertainment, and inspiration.