Yamashiro, Imagined Home and the Aesthetics of Hollywood Japanism: Memory Contained in Architectural Space

1 Yamashiro, Imagined Home and the Aesthetics of Hollywood Japanism: Memory Contained in Architectural Space By Dianne E. Lee A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the USC Graduate School At the University of Southern California August 2018 In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Master of Arts Degree In East Asian Area Studies Dr. Miya Elise Mizuta Lippit, Ph.D. Thesis Committee Chair Dr. Sonya S. Lee, Ph.D. Committee Member Dr. Lon Kurashige, Ph.D. Committee Member 2 "There is no object in Japan that seems to excite more diverse and adverse criticism among foreigners than does the Japanese house; it is a constant source of perplexity…" …Within these plain and unpretentious houses there are often to be seen marvels of exquisite carving, and the perfection of cabinet work; and surprise follows surprise, as one becomes more fully acquainted with the interior finish of these curious and remarkable dwellings." -Edward Sylvester (E.S.) Morse, “Japanese Homes and their Surroundings” (1885) 3 1 1 Yamashiro visitors in front of the imported pagoda from Japan, c. 1915-1920 4 2 2 (Top) Image from Country Life Magazine, 1922; (Bottom) Postcard from UCLA IMLab Media Archive of Postcards of the Bernheimer Residence Collection, c. 1920s 5 Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................................6 Preface..............................................................................................................................................8 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................11 Chapter 1: Yamashiro as Hollywood Japanism ............................................................................14 1.1) The Hollywood Imagination of Japan .......................................................................17 1.2) Art Collectors and Connoisseurs of Pasadena and the 'Others' of Hollywood ..........20 Chapter 2: Yamashiro as Space and Spectacle in America ..........................................................24 2.1) Recreating the Japanese Pavilion of the World's Fair at the Bernheimer Home .......27 2.2) Liminality in Architectural Space: Memorializing Space as a Museum ...................28 Conclusion .....................................................................................................................................30 Illustrations and Photographs .........................................................................................................33 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................50 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................................52 6 Abstract At the turn of the twentieth century, Boston was intimately involved in America's foundational understanding of Japanese art and culture through key figures like E.S. Morse and Okakura Kazuko. Morse produced one of the most influential written texts on Japanese architecture, Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings (1885), while Okakura, the first curator of Japanese art at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, prepared the American stage for Japan’s arrival through his books, Ideals of the East with Special Reference to the Arts of Japan (1904) and The Book of Tea (1906).3 These written works spurred curiosity for Japanese aesthetics and critically meditated on the position of Asian art within the sphere of world art. Consequently, this trend led to the development of private Japanese art collections by collectors like Isabella Stewart Gardner and John D. Rockefeller, as well as paved the path for major public institutions to curate and display collections of 'Oriental' art such as the renowned collection of Japanese art at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Such literature, collectors and collections became synonymous with Japanism and the history of Asian art in America.4 While extensive scholarship has been written on the popularity of Japanism in Boston and other major American cities such as Chicago and New York City, little has been written on its impacts and legacy in Los Angeles. Many scholars fail to specify that ‘Japanism in American culture' as we understand it, is more so connected to 'East Coast American' culture than it is to 'West Coast American' culture. From this lens, this thesis explores this distinction through the Yamashiro (1914), a Japanese-style home residence of Adolph and Eugene Bernheimer built in Hollywood, California. The home serves as a case study to examine the intersections of architecture and cultural identity and the formations of memory contained in space (private and public). The Yamashiro has long stood outside the conventional views of Japanese (and broadly Asian) art and architecture, therefore this study approaches the Yamashiro as a ‘living museum’ representative of a nostalgic era of a unique Hollywood Japanism in Los Angeles. It considers the deeper implications of preserving the home space as a form of memorialization and reexamines the space as an extension of the Oriental Pavilions at the World’s Fairs. This thesis ultimately explores how the Yamashiro constructed certain public perceptions and ideas of Japan and Asia-at-large through the architectural portrayals of Japan in Los Angeles. Key Words: American Japanism, Yamashiro, Heritage Home Preservation, Japanese Architecture, Southern California Arts and Crafts Movement, Hollywood Art, Los Angeles Architecture, Japanese Aesthetics, Memory, 3 Murai, Noriko and Chong, Alan. Inventing Asia: American Perspectives around 1900 (2014). 4 Japonisme describes the fascination for Japanese art and aesthetics in Europe in the mid-late nineteenth century. Derived from the French term, Japanism is used to describe Japan’s artistic and cultural influence in America. Japanism signified the ultimate high sophistication for the social elite in urban, developed cities at turn of the twentieth century. In this thesis, I refer to Japanism in “West Coast America” as describing Japan's influence in Los Angeles and greater Southern California. The idea of a unique distinction between “West Coast” versus “East Coast” Japanism was first cultivated through my graduate seminar led by Dr. Sonya S. Lee, where we discussed the establishment of public and private collections of Asian art in America, specifically through the influence of Okakura Kazuko and the Japanese collection at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the flourishment of Japanism in Chicago through the World’s Fair's display and exhibitions; See "Ideas of Asia in the Museum" (Vol. 28) Journal of the History of Collections, (2016). Parts of this thesis have been taken from my final term paper written for Dr. Miya Elise Mizuta Lippit's Japanese visual studies course entitled "Japan Housed in LA" and rapidly developed through my conversations with her and Dr. Kendall H. Brown, whose work on Japanese gardens in West-Coast America compelled me to consider the differing cultural coastal climates and how we currently define American Japanism; See Brown, Japanese-style Gardens of the Pacific West Coast (1999). 7 5 5 Main entrance to the Bernheimer Home, Yamashiro, c.1915-1930s; The stairs of the Yamashiro grounds currently lead down to the famed 600 year old pagoda and Buddha relic/statue/sculpture; Yamashiro Collection of Photographs. 8 Preface 山城 (Yama – Shiro) | "Mountain Palace" as translated in Japanese “A somewhat more delicate fantasy than Hollywood is normally associated with these Japanese gardens in 1913[4] – an age when Hollywood was still a soporific residential suburb whose inhabitants could view with amused disdain the antics of those crazy film-makers.” T.H. Watkins, “California in Color, Paradox of Plenty” (1970) pp. 44-45 Following the years of the fêted Japanese Pavilion at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition Fair in Chicago, Japanese art romanced America. An imagination of ‘life and home in Japan’ was emulated in the home space via souvenirs such as porcelains, teas, lacquers, silks, prints and other material goods.6 For wealthy Americans, this fascination evolved into the collecting of Japanese art, and consequently the establishment of private family collections of Asian art as a marker of social and cultural prestige. The construction of the Yamashiro in Los Angeles takes place at this particular time in American history, but its story is largely unknown and unmentioned in academic scholarship. How did its story become obscured when its history provides rich contextual study of Asian visual studies and architectural studies within American history? Moreover, why has its story not sparked more scholarly interest or analysis when its physical size, location, distinctive architecture and public popularity are undeniable? It is from these questions this thesis enters the vast field of Japanism in the United States to tell one regional story of the influence of Japanese aesthetics in Southern California. In Los Angeles, Hollywood and Pasadena neighborhoods are home to former residences (now turned heritage home museums) such as the David B. Gamble House (1908) and Aline Barnsdall Hollyhock House (1919) which are frequently attributed to Japanism during the Late Arts and Crafts Movement and later Early Modernism in American architectural discourse.7 In stark contrast, the Yamashiro, which entirely replicates

Load more