The international exhibition 1867 in Paris was the first time Japan presented itself as a nation to the world. From then on, the Japanese government sent women in kimonos to the Japanese pavilions to act as hosts. Their exotic clothing inspired Western artists to write books, create paintings and theatre productions.
Images of Japanese woman in kimono were associated with sexual fantasies, dreamed by male Europeans. Love stories about Western men and young Japanese women reflected the gendered structure of the relationship between the modernized West and the undeveloped land of Japan. In these fantasies they confused geishas with the sexualized images of oiran, the highest rank of prostitute in the Edo period.
Kimono became quite popular in the West, especially in opera and theater, with Japanese subjects presented in Paris as early as the 1870s. Like Madame Chrysanthème by Pierre Loti, which became one of the most famous portrayal of Japan as a land of women wearing kimono. Another one was The Mikado, a superficial comedy which was performed in London from 1885 onwards. The huge success in 1896 of the operetta titled The Geisha: A Story of a Tea House helped popularize the word “geisha” in Europe.
At this time, Sadayakko Kawakami (1871–1946), who started her career as a geisha, became the most famous Japanese actress and dancer in the West. After she toured the United States in 1899 with her husband’s troupe, they went to Europe in 1900. Due to her success at the Paris World Exhibition, she became a muse for French artists. She was on the cover of dozens of magazines, and licensed the name “Yacco” as a brand name for a kimono, a face cream, and a perfume by Guerlain. In Milan, their performances were attended by Giaccomo Puccini, whom she inspired in writing Madame Butterfly, which would premier in 1904.
01 Artwork: 1885 – poster for the theatre production “The Mikado”. The play opened on 14 March 1885, in London, and run for 672 performances. By the end of 1885, it was estimated that, in Europe and America, at least 150 companies were producing the opera. It plays in a fantasy Japan, and is a satire of late 19th century British institutions, society and politics.
02 Artwork: 1896 – Poster advertising The Geisha, A Story of a Tea House at Daly’s Theatre
03 Artist: Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926) Artwork: 1876 – La Japonaise. Portrait of his first wife Camille in a red uchikake. At its first presentation in Paris the painting was critizesed as bizarre and sexually suggestive.
04 Artist: Gustav Klimt (Austrian, 1862-1918) Artwork: 1917 – Lady with fan. It was the last painting Klimt worked on in 1917, as he was able to complete it with the exception of a few details. While most of his portraits depict society ladies, Klimt probably painted an unknown model here. Lady with Fan has only been exhibited once in Vienna, over a hundred years ago at the 1920 Kunstschau before it was shown in Tokio in 1981.
05 Artist: Leopoldo Metlicovitz (Italian, 1868-1944) Artwork: poster of ‘Madame Butterfly’ by Giacomo Puccini, created for the premiere on 17 February 1904.
06 Artist: Alfredo Müller (Swiss, 1869-1939) Artwork: 1900 – poster of Sada Yacco in kakemono style.