Japanese Decorative Arts of the Meiji Period

The word Meiji means 'enlightened government' and the new Japanese government of 1868 had as a primary aim the bringing of Japan into a new group of modern western industrial powers. The Meiji Restoration in Japan in 1868 led to a demonstration to the world of the brilliance of Japanese Craftsmanship through the media of the International Industrial Expositions that were such a feature of the second half of the nineteenth century and the first two decades of the twentieth. New techniques, such as cloisonne enamel began to be developed for the first time in Japan. Active purchasing has meant that the Ashmolean now has a good representative collection of the highest quality.