Why Japanese Aesthetic?

I think of myself as deeply European in my cultural outlook, yet Europe has long been in the shadow of Asian influence when it comes to art and aesthetic. As I explore the histories of Chinese, Japanese, and European ceramics and aesthetics, I'm left to ponder the roots of my own fascination with the Japanese wabi-sabi ethos. What was it about this acceptance of imperfection that so profoundly impacted the European artistic psyche? Perhaps it tapped into anxieties about industrialisation and mass production. Or represented an escape from the rationalism and order of modernity.

The Silk Road was an inexhaustible source of Chinese culture and aesthetic for Europe since even Roman times, with its porcelains and silks carrying that cultural sophistication westward. Chinese silk was so highly valued in ancient Rome that the Senate issued edicts banning men from wearing the material, deeming it too decadent. Yet silk was popular among Roman aristocratic women as a symbol of status and fashion.

Chinese crafts and arts impacted both Europe and Japan, which lived in the cultural shadow of its mammoth neighbor and progenitor for millennia. Chinese art and craft focused on perfection (not a critique but a statement of fact) - perfectly round pots, flawless glazing, perfect lines and stitches showed mastery and inspired awe. Following the Greeks and Romans, European art also focused on perfect representations, especially of holy figures like Jesus and the saints in the Middle Ages and beyond. For centuries, European artistic output lagged behind the sophistication of its Chinese, Ottoman, and Persian counterparts. While China, the Ottoman Empire, and Persia produced advanced ceramics, metalwork, and textiles, Europe was relatively rustic in technique and aesthetics. Only with the flowering of the Renaissance, did a distinctly European style come to the fore, incorporating influences absorbed from contact with the east along the Silk Road.

This delicate bowl was made in the workshops at Jingdezhen, southern China during the mid 17th century. Is is very light and so finely potted that the light is visible through its thin walls. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The esteem granted to Chinese porcelain is exemplified by the Japanese Emperor Higashiyama, who apocryphally offered to trade his kingdom for a Ming dynasty Jingdezhen cup in the late 17th century - no small hyperbole. So strong was Europe's demand for Chinese porcelain that Britain resorted to the opium trade and Opium Wars in the 19th century to keep up with domestic appetite for…china.

For centuries, the Venetians brought Chinese goods to Europe through Silk Road trade, and Europeans struggled to match the perfection of Chinese porcelains, with French and German rulers finally establishing porcelain production after long searches for materials, recipes and techniques.

Porcelain manufacturing began at the Meissen factory in Saxony in 1708 after alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger rediscovered the process. In 1738, the Vincennes porcelain factory was established near Paris by Louis XV.

This service comprising 1,749 separate pieces, of which 1,266 were tableware items in biscuit porcelain, was commissioned in 1751 and delivered in batches by the Vincennes manufactory between 1753 and 1755. The King’s goldsmith, Jean-Claude Duplessis (1699-1774), produced designs for all of the pieces specially, while the chemist Jean Hellot developed a new turquoise blue ground colour called “celestial blue”, in honour of the Middle Empire (China). This Louis XV service was used by the royal family right up to the end of the Ancien Régime
© EPV / Christophe Fouin

Japan was closed off from Europe for centuries under the Tokugawa Shogunate, established in 1603, which lasted until Commodore Perry's gunboats opened Japan in 1854, starting its proper integration into global trade. When Japan opened up, the West was industrialising rapidly, applying mass production to many crafts like pottery. Methods like plaster molds, transfer printing and assembly line techniques enabled the mass production of affordable, high quality ceramics. For example, English potteries like Spode and Wedgwood used transfer-printing on an industrial scale to apply intricate decorative patterns with consistency. This stood in contrast to painstaking traditional techniques required in China and Japan to produce porcelain wares.

As the West adopted mass production pottery methods, the awe inspired by imported Chinese and Japanese porcelains diminished among Western elites. The exoticism and perfection of handcrafted oriental ceramics was displaced by Western industry's capacity to produce detailed pottery on a large scale. At this point, the allure of perfection in Chinese crafts lost some sway, as Western pottery industrialisation and mass production advanced.

Edouard Manet
Emile Zola (détail), en 1868 Musée d'Orsay
Donation de Mme Emile Zola, veuve, 1918
© RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d’Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski

As the West became able to reliably mass-manufacture detailed, intricate goods, the awe and novelty of imported Chinese porcelains, silks and lacquerware diminished among Western elites. Their rarity and exoticism was somewhat displaced by the West's own industrial prowess and productive capacity. At this historical juncture, the allure of perfection and mystique in Chinese crafts lost influence in the Western mind.

At the same time, as Japan rapidly modernised to compete with the West and prevent colonisation, its traditional culture became a fascination for European and American artists and intellectuals. While China represented contradiction of ancient technical mastery and opium infused decadence more familiar through centuries of trade, Japan provided a new window into Eastern philosophy and acceptance of imperfection coupled with virility of new Meiji regime. Whether these are true reasons or not Japanese perspective resonated powerfully with the European creative consciousness.

Japonisme took root in late 19th century France through Art Nouveau and Impressionism as European intellectuals grappled with industrialisation's effects on individual identity and authenticity amid growing populations and nationalism. Apart from pure novelty, my guess is that Japanese art's focus on perfecting imperfection opened the door to internal freedom, where flawed objects and humans could still be beautiful. Major artists like Monet, Degas and Van Gogh were influenced by the Japanese aesthetics of asymmetry and simplicity.

While we should still hold awe for the technical achievements of Chinese potters, who were pioneers in many respects with the Japanese and Europeans following in their steps, it was the humanist angle of Japanese aesthetics that most resonated with Europeans. The Japanese focus on perfecting imperfection opened the door to embracing flawed beauty. This internal freedom, where imperfect objects and humans could still be appreciated aesthetically, deeply integrated with European ideals.

Stoneware tea bowl with crackled glaze, Hagi ware, Japanese, 1625-75 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

As Western intellectuals grappled with modernity’s effects on individual identity, the Japanese aesthetic provided a timely perspective. Though initially influenced by Chinese perfection, Europeans ultimately integrated the humane sensitivity of Japanese art and craft into their artistic consciousness.