Panel 3: Siebold’s “Japan Museum” Plan and its “Presenting” Japan Lacquer in the Siebold Collection Kaori HIDAKA (Translated by Martha J. MCCLINTOCK) Introduction There is a relatively large number of lacquer decorative artworks in the collection of Japanese items brought to Europe by Siebold from his two trips to Japan, and the medium occupies an important position within the collection. This has led to the occasional introduction of the lacquer in the Siebold Collection, with most attention paid to the lacquer works in the National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden, which were collected during Siebold’s first visit to Japan. Conversely, many of the lacquer works collected during Siebold’s second visit to Japan were first introduced to Japanese audiences in the exhibition, Japan as Seen by Siebold Father and Son,1 held at the National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka and the Edo-Tokyo Museum in Tokyo in 1996 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Siebold’s birth. This exhibition gave credence to the importance of these works, and yet to this day there remains a great amount of work still to be done on the details of this collection held by the Five Continents Museum in Munich, (former State Museum of Ethnology, Munich). Thus, thanks to the International Collaborative Research on Japan-related Documents and Artifacts Overseas project under the auspices of the National Institutes for the Humanities, I surveyed the entire collection of Siebold lacquer works in the Munich museum. Combined with a reference survey of the lacquers collected by Siebold in the Leiden museum collection, I strove for a grasp of the entire group of lacquer works collected by Siebold. What was his point of view in his collecting of lacquer, and what position had he assigned lacquer in the Japan Museum he envisioned. By looking at the entire collection of lacquer over his two visits we can finally begin to answer these two questions. 1. Regarding Siebold’s Lacquer Collection First, let us simply organize what we know about how Philipp Franz von Siebold collected lacquer and the collection as a whole. Siebold first arrived in Japan as a doctor for Deshima, Nagasaki, and lived there from 1823-1829 (Bunsei 6-12). In a letter to the Dutch Minister of Culture dated March 1831 he wrote, to paraphrase from the Japanese version, “My first two or three years in Japan were spent on assembling my natural sciences collection, and I was focused on researching Japanese literature. Then during my later time in Edo in 1826, I became interested in ethnological items, and began building a comprehensive collection of such items.” Based on this comment, Matthi Forrer considers that Siebold’s collection of ethnological materials, including lacquer, assembled during his first visit to Japan, was carried out between February 1826 when he set off to his audience in Edo with the shogunal government, until 2 around September 1828 when the Siebold Incident made it difficult to continue. Lacquer in the Siebold Collection 359 Conversely, during his second stay in Japan, from 1859 (Ansei 6) to 1862 (Bunkyû 2), he resided in Nagasaki as an advisor to the Dutch Trading Company up until the summer of 1861, and then from the summer of 1861, he moved to Edo to act as an advisor to the shogunal government. Siebold, in a later letter thought to be addressed to King Ludwig I, wrote, to paraphrase from the Japanese, “I assembled the majority of this collection between 1859-61 in Edo, the capital of the shogun,”3 and as indicated by Bruno Richtsfeld, the majority of Siebold’s collecting activity took place during his time in Edo, and we thus know that his collection of massive numbers of objects was conducted in a relatively short time period.4 The Japan-related materials collected during these two sojourns in Japan are today housed in the Museum of Ethnology, Leiden, Five Continents Museum, and with the Von Brandenstein-Zeppelin family of Siebold descendants. The Leiden museum houses the collection assembled on his first stay in Japan, and as indicated by Forrer,5 while the majority of the items in the Munich collection were acquired during his second stay, there is the possibility that the Munich collection includes some items from his first sojourn. For example, the Peach-Shaped Small Dish with Makie and Mother-of-Pearl Designs (S1657, fig. 1) in the Munich collection is of the same type as those found in the Leiden collection. Conversely, the collection of the Von Brandenstein-Zeppelin family of Siebold descendants contains what is thought to be a mixture of items collected during both sojourns in Japan, and those added by later generations. These works in the Von Brandenstein-Zeppelin family collection, such as the Stationery Box with Rock and Peony Design in Makie (S328b), or the Cigarette Case with Rock and Peony Design in Aogai Shellwork (fig. 3) are the same as those found in the Munich collection(S452a, fig. 2). However, given that only 30-plus years separate Siebold’s two periods in Japan and there was not that great a change in lacquer styles during that period, it is extremely difficult to distinguish which of the collected works was acquired during which stay only from the evidence provided by the extant works themselves. Thorough research and examination will be necessary to determine when each individual object in the various collections was acquired. Fig. 1 Peach-Shaped Small Dish with Makie and Mother- of-Pearl Designs (Five Continents Museum, S1657) Fig. 2 Cigarette Case with Rock Fig. 3 Cigarette Case with and Peony Design in Rock and Peony Design Aogai Shellwork in Aogai Shellwork (von (Five Continents Museum Brandenstein-Zeppelin S452a) family collection) 360 International Symposium Proceedings — Siebold’s Vision of Japan 2. Overview of the Lacquer Works in Five Continents Museum, Siebold Collection The survey of the Siebold Collection in the present-day Five Continents Museum, that formed the main subject of our study, began in fiscal 2008 and continues today. The survey and photography sessions reveal that out of the massive collecting of more than 7,000 items, there are approximately 600 lacquer items. This is an overwhelmingly large number compared to the number of items in other media within the Munich Siebold collection. It also clearly outnumbers the number of lacquer works in the Leiden collection, suggesting that on his second sojourn in Japan Siebold was interested in lacquer and took the opportunity to buy large numbers of works in the media. The lacquer works in the collection are of a huge range of types, including inkstone boxes, stationary boxes, letter boxes, tanzaku (poem strip) boxes, pen stands and other desk equipment (figs. 4-5), or the traditional main forms of household furnishings including personal care items like cosmetic equipment. Further, for example, the lacquer ware decorated with a paulownia and scrolling vines design in makie (S1047, fig. 6) is a set of incense ceremony equipment inside a box. Clearly this compactly organized set would have attracted the attention of a foreigner at the time. A large number of the works are food and drink utensils, such as cups, bowls, dishes and sake equipment (fig. 7). From large chests of drawers to small incense containers and inrô (medicine containers) and miniature doll furnishings, the collection boasts a truly diverse range of lacquer items. This diversity also plays out in terms of the quality of the lacquer works, from luxury items sumptuously decorated with makie or mother-of-pearl for the upper classes, to everyday use lacquer items for the middle classes, and cheap souvenir-type lacquer items. The Siebold Collection has previously been highly valued as an ethnographic collection, while conversely some have considered it low in value from an artistic standpoint. This conundrum has also been the case for the lacquer items in the collection. Because most of the collections of Japanese Fig. 5 Tanzaku Poem Paper Box with Pine Fig. 4 Stationery Box with Pine and and Bamboo Design in Makie (Five Bamboo Design in Makie Continents Museum, S385) (Five Continents Museum, S319a,b) Fig. 7 Large Flat Bowl and Lid with Fish and Fig. 6 Sanmenban Incense Equipment with Paulownia Waterplants Design in Makie (Five and Scrolling Vines Design in Makie (Five Continents Museum, S537) Continents Museum, S1047) Lacquer in the Siebold Collection 361 items assembled in the latter half of the 19th century saw lacquer as an artistic decorative art, the mixing in of mid to lower class items that are separate from the artwork sphere, may have been one of the aspects that lowered the value of the collection itself. For example, the tray with a pine and crane design in makie (S461c, fig. 8) is made with a cheaper form Fig. 8 Tray with Pine and Crane Design in Makie (Five Continents Museum, of makie and materials known as keshifun makie, and S461c) thus is a typical example of an inexpensive everyday ware or souvenir item. The Siebold Collection contains a large number of such works. And yet, from another perspective, the fact that Siebold collected such less expensive lacquer items means that today we can get a better sense of the overall range of lacquer techniques and uses in late Edo period Japan. In fact, it seems that Siebold was conscious of Fig. 9 Sewing Box with Pine and Eagle such factors in his purchasing of diverse types of lacquer, Design in Makie (Five Continents and in the catalogue of the exhibition of his collection Museum, S450) discussed below, it is noteworthy that he mentions quality in the text “Alle diese Gegenstaende wurden für den fremden Handel gemacht und sind von weniger gutem Lack.” Because most of the lacquer items collected by Siebold were meant to show the everyday culture and lives of the Japanese people, there are few examples of the export style lacquer made for Western tastes.