
Etching, Engraving, Exchanging
Japanese Intaglio Printing and Dutch Exchange in the Late 18th Century
Despite a state-sponsored policy of isolationism, artists and scholars throughout Japan's Edo Period were continually fascinated by art from beyond the Japanese archipelago. This project uses prints and illustrated books in the collections of the Rijksmuseum to examine how and why Japanese artists gravitated towards etching and engraving in the late Edo Period.
About the project
This project examines the importing of western anatomical manuals, prints and artists’ manuals to Japan in the late 18th century to decentre the narrative that characterises Japanese printmaking as limited to woodblock printing.
In his 1799 book Treatise on Western Images the Japanese printmaker Shiba Kōkan (1747-1818) describes certain western illustrations as so realistic that they demonstrated ‘the brilliance and superiority of western art.’ These images were engravings and etchings in books from the Dutch trading post at Dejima. In Edo (now Tokyo), a small coterie of dedicated ‘Dutch scholars’ worked to reverse engineer the language, science and artistic techniques they found in these books.
Aims of the project
This project supports dissertation research examining the development of intaglio printing methods such as etching and engraving in late-18th-century Japan. While this subject is, in itself, a fascinating if understudied aspect of Edo Period print culture, this project additionally seeks to integrate Japanese intaglio printing into a broader discourse on colonial and export printmaking. It will also consider the ways in which key figures in the exchange and production of intaglio prints in Japan aligned themselves with projects within the shogunal government relating to surveying, prospecting and military defence.
Staff
Nicholas Purgett
nicholas.purgett@rijksmuseum.nl
Anton C.R. Dreesmann Fellow
Marije Jansen
M.Jansen@rijksmuseum.nl
Curator of Japanese Prints
Partners and Sponsors
Dr. Anton C.R. Dreesmann Fund