신제국주의 시대 영국박물관의 일본 컬렉션의 형성 (The British Museum’s Japanese collections in the age of expanding new imperialisms, 1859-1914)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 국립중앙박물관
· 수록지 정보 : 미술자료 / 87호 / 59 ~ 91페이지
· 저자명 : 티모시 클라크

초록

The original founding collections of the British Museum (BM), bequeathed by Sir Hans Sloane in 1753, included a small number of Japanese objects collected in Japan between 1690 and 1692 by Engelbert Kaempfer (1651-1716). Much more significant were Kaempfer’s manuscripts and drawings (now British Library) that would form the basis for the translation and publication of his History of Japan (London, 1727), funded by Sloane. This would serve as the guide for a European intelligentsia interested in Japan until the 1850s. More comprehensive collecting of Japanese art and artefacts by the BM began in earnest following the opening of the new treaty port of Yokohama in 1859. This article focuses mainly on the period from 1859 until the beginning of WWI in 1914. This era marked the end of what is sometimes referred to as 'Britain's imperial century (1815-1914)' and by this date Japan too had expanded its overseas empire to encompass Taiwan, Korea and parts of NE China. To what extent was the formation of the ‘British’ Museum’s holdings of Japanese works moulded by and reflective of this age of expanding new imperialisms? Within the larger framework of global realpolitik, BM collecting was the product -- to a perhaps unusual degree -- of the tastes, interests and capabilities of individual curators, served in turn by their links with collectors. In terms of generating popular understanding about both traditional and contemporary Japan, however, the BM’s collections and displays risked being overshadowed in a sensational way by huge international expositions such as the Japan-British Exhibition held in London in 1910, seen by more than 8 million visitors. The four important ‘founding collections’ of Japanese works acquired by the BM in the late 19th and early 20th centuries stem from the personalities and activities of four key individuals: Augustus Wollaston Franks (1826-1897) never visited Japan. He was ‘Keeper’ (chief curator)of the BM from 1851-1897. Franks donated or bequeathed 3,022 Japanese objects between the 1860s and 1902. These were mainly ceramics/archaeological artefacts, netsuke and tsuba also paintings and prints, metalwork and decorative arts, including religious icons. Franks was additionally responsible for attracting to the BM the collections of Anderson and Gowland below. William Anderson (1842-1900) worked in Japan from 1873-1880. He was professor of anatomy and surgery at the Naval Medical College in Tokyo. 3,299 items of Japanese pictorial art were sold by Anderson to the BM in 1881; 1,891+ volumes of Japanese illustrated books were then sold by him to the BM between 1882 and 1894. William Gowland (1842-1922) worked in Japan from 1872-1888. He was a chemist and metallurgist at the Imperial Japanese Mint (Zōheikyoku) in Osaka. About 480 Japanese and about 50 Korean archaeological artefacts from Gowland’s collection were purchased by Franks in 1889 and donated to the BM. Arthur Morrison (1863-1945) never visited Japan. He was a popular Victorian novelist. 1,851 ukiyo-e prints were sold by Morrison to the BM in 1906. 33 Chinese and 589 Japanese paintings from Morrison’s collection were donated by Sir William Gwynne-Evans in 1913. 66 Japanese paintings and 71 Japanese prints were bequeathed by Morrison in 1945. Although a proportion of the works acquired by each of these curators and collectors was contemporary, it is striking that so few illustrate the dynamic way in which Japan modernised and pursued colonialism after 1868. The BM’s collections from this period largely suggest a view of Japan (and of Japan in Asia) as the object of a colonizing gaze, rather than the subject of its own imperial expansion. Exceptions are perhaps the ‘lyrical’ colour woodblock prints of the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-5 -- presumed to have been purchased as new by Arthur Morrison, but mostly only bequeathed to BM in 1946 after his death -- and the small group of contemporary Nihonga paintings he acquired from visiting artists to London such as Shimomura Kanzan (1873-1930). An alternative model of personal interaction and friendship is represented by the case of Japanese artist, Kawanabe Kyōsai (1831-1889) and British architect Josiah Conder (1852-1920). As a result of the brilliant work of Edward Said and others, we have developed the mind-set that Orientalism is always a dirty business of collaboration with imperialist ambition, and that Occidentalism is a bid to compete in this scramble for colonies by non-Western elites. What the friendship between Kyōsai and Conder demonstrates, albeit on a micro-scale, is that it was sometimes possible for Japanese and Westerner genuinely to collaborate from positions of mutual curiosity and respect, within a non-colonialist mind-set.

영어초록

The original founding collections of the British Museum (BM), bequeathed by Sir Hans Sloane in 1753, included a small number of Japanese objects collected in Japan between 1690 and 1692 by Engelbert Kaempfer (1651-1716). Much more significant were Kaempfer’s manuscripts and drawings (now British Library) that would form the basis for the translation and publication of his History of Japan (London, 1727), funded by Sloane. This would serve as the guide for a European intelligentsia interested in Japan until the 1850s. More comprehensive collecting of Japanese art and artefacts by the BM began in earnest following the opening of the new treaty port of Yokohama in 1859. This article focuses mainly on the period from 1859 until the beginning of WWI in 1914. This era marked the end of what is sometimes referred to as 'Britain's imperial century (1815-1914)' and by this date Japan too had expanded its overseas empire to encompass Taiwan, Korea and parts of NE China. To what extent was the formation of the ‘British’ Museum’s holdings of Japanese works moulded by and reflective of this age of expanding new imperialisms? Within the larger framework of global realpolitik, BM collecting was the product -- to a perhaps unusual degree -- of the tastes, interests and capabilities of individual curators, served in turn by their links with collectors. In terms of generating popular understanding about both traditional and contemporary Japan, however, the BM’s collections and displays risked being overshadowed in a sensational way by huge international expositions such as the Japan-British Exhibition held in London in 1910, seen by more than 8 million visitors. The four important ‘founding collections’ of Japanese works acquired by the BM in the late 19th and early 20th centuries stem from the personalities and activities of four key individuals: Augustus Wollaston Franks (1826-1897) never visited Japan. He was ‘Keeper’ (chief curator)of the BM from 1851-1897. Franks donated or bequeathed 3,022 Japanese objects between the 1860s and 1902. These were mainly ceramics/archaeological artefacts, netsuke and tsuba also paintings and prints, metalwork and decorative arts, including religious icons. Franks was additionally responsible for attracting to the BM the collections of Anderson and Gowland below. William Anderson (1842-1900) worked in Japan from 1873-1880. He was professor of anatomy and surgery at the Naval Medical College in Tokyo. 3,299 items of Japanese pictorial art were sold by Anderson to the BM in 1881; 1,891+ volumes of Japanese illustrated books were then sold by him to the BM between 1882 and 1894. William Gowland (1842-1922) worked in Japan from 1872-1888. He was a chemist and metallurgist at the Imperial Japanese Mint (Zōheikyoku) in Osaka. About 480 Japanese and about 50 Korean archaeological artefacts from Gowland’s collection were purchased by Franks in 1889 and donated to the BM. Arthur Morrison (1863-1945) never visited Japan. He was a popular Victorian novelist. 1,851 ukiyo-e prints were sold by Morrison to the BM in 1906. 33 Chinese and 589 Japanese paintings from Morrison’s collection were donated by Sir William Gwynne-Evans in 1913. 66 Japanese paintings and 71 Japanese prints were bequeathed by Morrison in 1945. Although a proportion of the works acquired by each of these curators and collectors was contemporary, it is striking that so few illustrate the dynamic way in which Japan modernised and pursued colonialism after 1868. The BM’s collections from this period largely suggest a view of Japan (and of Japan in Asia) as the object of a colonizing gaze, rather than the subject of its own imperial expansion. Exceptions are perhaps the ‘lyrical’ colour woodblock prints of the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-5 -- presumed to have been purchased as new by Arthur Morrison, but mostly only bequeathed to BM in 1946 after his death -- and the small group of contemporary Nihonga paintings he acquired from visiting artists to London such as Shimomura Kanzan (1873-1930). An alternative model of personal interaction and friendship is represented by the case of Japanese artist, Kawanabe Kyōsai (1831-1889) and British architect Josiah Conder (1852-1920). As a result of the brilliant work of Edward Said and others, we have developed the mind-set that Orientalism is always a dirty business of collaboration with imperialist ambition, and that Occidentalism is a bid to compete in this scramble for colonies by non-Western elites. What the friendship between Kyōsai and Conder demonstrates, albeit on a micro-scale, is that it was sometimes possible for Japanese and Westerner genuinely to collaborate from positions of mutual curiosity and respect, within a non-colonialist mind-set.

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