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"During the vibrant, energetic, and flamboyant era of radical transformation dubbed by Mark Twain as the "Gilded Age," a phenomenon popularly called the "Japan Craze" swept the West. In the United States, it spread from coast to coast, enticed everyone from robber barons to street vendors with its allure, and touched every aspect of life from patent medicines to wallpaper. And, in an era that idealized domesticity, its greatest and most lasting impact occurred in and around the home: dining utensils, dishes, objects, furnishings and concepts of interior design that defined the very space by which people of the time most defined themselves. In short, the Japan Craze typified its own era and initiated almost every direction that modern standards of domestic aesthetics have taken. In having done so, it set the stage for the everyday world we now inhabit."
Excerpted from Hannah Sigur’s The Influence of Japanese Art on Design (Gibbs Smith, 2008)
In England in 1885 the home furnishings accessory de rigeur was a Japanese fan. This exotic trinket from the Far East was readily accessible in most curio shops, and bestowed on any middle class home an "Aesthetic" touch. Whether casually tucked behind a picture frame on a wall or conspicuously displayed on a dedicated "whatnot" shelf, the Japanese paper fan trumpeted taste and refinement. At the same time, however, it was inexpensive and therefore somewhat disposable. For a few cents the home-maker could purchase a piece of trendy Japan-ware and join the Craze.
By 1891 Japan was exporting more than 15 million fans to satisfy the new trend, and the folding or fixed paper fan became one of the first modern home fashion accessories. During the Aesthetic Movement, creating a beautiful home was almost a moral imperative, and devotees believed that an artistic interior mirrored the souls of its inhabitants. The fashionable home was expected to reflect the times, however, and the times were changing. If a whole make-over was not in order (or not in the budget), accessories could fill the gap. What Late Victorians on both sides of the Atlantic may not have realized, however, is that they had imported Japanese concepts along with their fans.
A few centuries before the English were freshening up their rooms with fans, the Japanese were arranging their rooms based on the seasons. The showa philosophy in architecture had evolved from a severe, minimalist aesthetic favored by the samurai class. And central to the showa aesthetic was the tokonoma, or alcove, which held a changing display of art and flowers. The tokonoma was a rasied platform, often incorporating a shelf and column, where a rotating display of flowers and art was curated by the home-maker. Each season, the aesthetic-minded individual would select a hanging scroll or ceramic vessel from the storehouse and display it alongside a cutting from the garden reflective of the season.
Here the Japanese were living the creed that the home reflect its owner’s artistry long before any meaningful contact with Europe. And they were also utilizing the home as a stage for a changing display of curated objects at a time when Europeans displayed all of their prizes at once, in an installation that rarely changed once set.
In 1868, however, all that changed. Japan was opened to the West, a spark ignited the Japan Craze, which evolved into the Aesthetic Movement, and inspired a curatorial attitude towards our furnishings, which has forever altered our relationship to our homes.
Now we take for granted that our homes reflect our spirits, and also change to reflect the times. But it wasn’t always so. It took 15 million paper fans blowing on a strong wind from the Far East to teach us this lesson — and for the modern home accessories industry to be born.
