Rookwood and the Japanese
Mania in Cincinnati
by Kenneth Trapp
to the arts of Japan at the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, the
American public quickly developed a near-manic taste for things JapaInese.ntroduced
Just as the English and the French two decades earlier had warmly
embraced Japanese themes and styles, Americans now found an irresistible
charm in the art from the exotic Land of the Rising Sun.1 A virtual Japanese
fever swept America, burning most intensely and with indelible effect in
the Arts and Crafts Movement.
In few American cities was the Japanese mania more avid than in Cincinnati, where it manifested itself most strikingly in the decorative arts
movement which began to flower in the Queen City in the late 1870's. With
the founding of the Rookwood pottery in 1880, the powerful influence of
Japanese art upon Cincinnati's decorators was soon to become a matter of
nationwide note and emulation.
While the Japanese influence upon Rookwood is commonly acknowledged
by authorities on the pottery, only recently has there been an attempt to
study the subject with some thoroughness. The dispersion of documents, a
paucity of examples, and the complex nature of the subject have doubtless
impeded serious investigation. Furthermore, a thorough study of the Japanese influence on Rookwood must be directed to more than the location,
identification, and cataloguing of Japanese sources used by Rookwood decorators. Involved and important as this task is, it does not, however, focus
upon the larger picture: the context of the Japanese mania in Cincinnati
and in America and the effects the Japanese influence had upon the artistic
and technical developments of Rookwood pottery.
Many questions persist. Why are there so few examples of Rookwood
which exhibit forms or decorations drawn from traceable Japanese sources?
What kinds of Japanese art were being collected in Cincinnati in the late
nineteenth century? These two questions lead to a third: To what extent
were nineteenth-century American conceptions of Japanese art predetermined by Western aesthetics and predilections and to. what extent did the
Japanese themselves contribute to and reinforce entrenched preconceptions,
if not misconceptions, of their own art through Japanese export wares?
Finally, to what extent was the Japanese influence on Rookwood derived
from secondary sources such as printed material and from the work of
European Japonisme decorators? While the answers—if indeed there are
answers—to these questions are beyond the scope of this paper, nonetheless
an examination of the Japanese influence upon Rookwood provides invaluable insight into the pottery's history.
The first Japanese influence on Rookwood is inextricably linked to the
taste of Mrs. Maria Longworth Nichols (became Mrs. Bellamy Storer in
1886), the founder of the pottery. In 1875, Mrs. Nichols was given "some
little Japanese books of designs" which a friend had brought her from London. Perhaps the books had been purchased from the orientalia shop on
Regent Street which Arthur Lasenby Liberty had opened in May of that
year. Mrs. (Nichols) Storer said of these books in an 1897 article published
in the Art Journal: "This . . . was almost my first acquaintance with Japanese Art of the imaginative and suggestive kind. It prepared me for the
wonderful beauty of the Japanese exhibit at the Philadelphia Centennial
Exposition of 1876."2
While attending the Centennial, Mrs. Nichols became captivated by the
Japanese exhibits. Shown for the first time in America in great quantity,
the Japanese ceramics, bronzes, lacquer work, and screens fired in her "a
desire to have a place of my own where things could be made." She suggested to her father, Joseph Longworth, that a Japanese pottery—workmen
and all—might be brought over.3 He was not thrilled with the suggestion.
Undoubtedly, Mrs. Nichols would have seen the Haviland and Company
of Limoges, France, exhibits of faience painted under the glaze, works which
greatly inspired another Cincinnatian, Mary Louise McLaughlin. Included
in the Haviland display was Felix Bracquemond's he Service Parisien.4
Strongly suggestive of Japanese imagery, the lyrical decorations of the service depicted the atmospheric effects of the changing seasons.
Returned to Cincinnati, Maria Longworth Nichols and her husband advanced the Japanese mania in the Queen City. In Art Education Applied to
Industry, published in 1877, George Ward Nichols wrote:
the novelty, freshness, and infinite grace of the decoration of . . Japanese ceramics, bronzes, screens, fans, and lacquer work will exert a
wide and positive influence upon American art industries, an influence
more immediate and enduring in its action than that of any one country, or perhaps of all the countries combined, which exhibited at the
Centennial Exposition.5
Mrs. Nichols in turn began to develop her highly idiosyncratic Japanesque
style. In 1878, examples of her Japanese-inspired drawings appeared in
two publications by her husband: as a cover design and interior vignettes
in The Cincinnati Organ and as a cover design and five plates of suggested
52
s
• « -
•
The designs on the cover of Pottery, How It Is Made by
George Ward Nichols in 1878 were compiled and
drawn by Maria Longworth Nichols, wife of the author.
designs for decoration after the Japanese in Pottery, How It Is Made. The
drawings for the latter volume were copied, directly or through secondary
sources, from at least four Japanese books of illustrations.6
Perhaps Mrs. Nichols compiled her drawings for Pottery, How It Is Made
from the little books of Japanese designs given to her by a friend in 1875.
It is doubtful that she knew either the names of the artists or the titles of
her Japanese books.
By 1878, the interest in Japanese art in Cincinnati had reached a fevered
pitch. The Women's Art Museum Association (1877-1886) opened a Loan
Exhibition on May 6, bringing to public attention a wide selection of Japanese art in private Cincinnati collections. Satsuma, Kaga, Yokohama, Kyoto,
Hizen, and other ceramic wares, as well as bronzes, lacquer work, carvings
in wood, swords, cloisonne, and musical instruments were shown. The selection of Japanese art was clearly decorative. Interestingly, the Loan Exhibition catalogue listed no Japanese scrolls, screens, illustrated books, or wood
block prints. Sixteen pieces of Japanese art from the collection of George
Ward Nichols were exhibited, as were several examples of Japanese art from
the Joseph Longworth collection.7
On May 13, 1878, a major exhibition and sale of Japanese art took place
in Cincinnati. The sale catalogue, which listed 433 works of art, included
this puffery:
Rare examples of all the choicest Potteries, Porcelains Cloissone ]sic[
on Copper and Porcelain, rare old Bronzes, Ivory Carvings, pure Gold
and Ancient Cinnabar Lacquers will be found here. Nothing finer can
be laid down in this or any other city, since nothing finer or more beautiful can be found and purchased in Japan.8
That a sale of this magnitude was held in Cincinnati testifies to the intense
interest in Japanese art in the Queen City in the late 1870's. The Nicholses
might very well have purchased objects from this sale.
In May 1879 Mrs. Nichols approached Frederick Dallas about the possibility of using the facilities of his commercial pottery. Dallas consented to
make and fire pieces for Nichols. Her earliest decorated pottery was strongly
Japanese in spirit. Typifying her pre-Rookwood Japanese decoration are
three pieces —two large vases and a short bottle vase.9
A second major exhibition and sale of Japanese and Far Eastern art occurred in Cincinnati in May 1880. The sale catalogue listed 309 separate
entries, comprising mostly ceramics which included Awata, Bishu, Hizen,
Imari, Kaga, Ota, Owari, and Satsuma. Many of the ceramic pieces were
described as being decorated with flowers, birds in flight, bamboo and birds,
foliage, insects, and delicate blue clouding. 10 Such natural subjects had
particular appeal to the pottery decorators and wood carvers of Cincinnati.
54
Undoubtedly an exhibition and sale of this scope attracted Mrs. Nichols.
Although not mentioning her by name, the August 1880 Potter's American
Monthly described Mrs. Nichols' decorated pottery:
Upon a delicate buff foundation there will be perhaps a panel of blue,
shaded with pure nicety, with here and there a dragon in relief, richly
gilded, and coiled it may be, around the bottom or near the top, where
it is made to form quaint handles, while the introduction of one or two
droll figures in human shape, give [sic] these vases a decidely Japanese
appearance.11
In the summer of 1880, Mrs. Nichols founded her own pottery in a former
schoolhouse at 207 Eastern Avenue. Named "Rookwood' after her childhood
home in bucolic East Walnut Hills, her small pottery would, she hoped,
achieve a prominence in ceramics equal to that of Wedgwood. The first kiln
was drawn on Thanksgiving Day. Although the contents of the kiln are a
matter for speculation today, these earliest pieces were very probably a continuation of Mrs. Nichols' Japanese-inspired work.12
With the founding of Rookwood, Mrs. Nichols continued to cultivate her
own distinctively primitive style. Grotesque subjects, often treated humorously, predominated. Dragons, gaping-mouthed fish with bulging eyes, crabs
and other crustaceans, marine creatures, leaping and dancing frogs, marching crickets, spiders in their webs,flyingbats, and owls perched on branches
with a full moon as a back drop were painted and modeled with vigorous
naivete. More lyrical interpretations of common Japanese decorative motifs
included sprays of flowers, leafy bamboo and berries, flying swallows, and
cranes. Imitations of Japanese calligraphy often enhanced a decorative
scheme.
Elizabeth Perry succinctly described Mrs. Nichols' decorative work in an
1881 Harper's New Monthly Magazine article as having:
the inevitable dragon coiled about the neck of the vase, or at its base,
varied with gods, wise men, the sacred mountain, storks, owls, monsters
of the air and water, bamboo, etc., decorated in high relief, underglaze
color, incised design, and an overglaze enrichment of gold.13
Within a year after she had opened Rookwood, Mrs. Nichols hired the
pottery's first professional decorator, Albert Robert Valentien (nee Valentine). Prior to joining Rookwood, Valentien and John Rettig had taught a
class in underglaze slip painting at the Patrick L. Coultry commercial pottery. Often referred to as "Cincinnati faience" or "Cincinnati Limoges," the
underglaze slip painting process used in the Queen City had been developed
and perfected by Mary Louise McLaughlin. McLaughlin's technique, adopted
55
as the standard method of decorating pottery at Rookwood, involved the
painting of green—or still moist—ceramic forms with colored slips—liquid
clay. Ideally, the clay form and slip decoration would dry uniformly, creating
a single piece. After the first, or bisque, firing a piece was usually covered with
a clear or tinted glaze to bring forth the brilliance of the slip painting
underneath.
Joseph Nichols Hirschfeld and Matthew Daly, two other decorators hired
in the early years of Rookwood, had received their initial training in pottery
decoration at the Matt Morgan Art Pottery Company, a local rival of Rookwood equally eclectic in its decorative styles. A conservative Japanesque
decorative style using a limited repertory of leafy bamboo, flying swallows,
and fluttering butterflies was carried to Rookwood by Hirschfeld and Daly.
At times the Japanesque decorations of Mrs. Nichols, Albert R. Valentien,
Nicholas J. Hirschfeld, and Matt A. Daly were uncannily similar, sometimes
even indistinguishable. It was not long, however, before Valentien and Daly
developed their own individual styles. Under the influence of the Japanese,
both men decorated some of the most exquisite examples of Rookwood in the
1880'sand 1890's.
Five years after the Centennial Exhibition Mrs. Nichols had not abandoned her desire to secure a Japanese decorator. With Rookwood established,
she began her search for a Japanese decorator, turning for help to a fellow
Ohioan, the diplomat John A. Bingham. The Cincinnati Daily Gazette on
August 22, 1881 reported that Mrs. Nichols was seeking to employ a
Japanese pottery decorator to teach in the "Rookwood School for Pottery
Decoration."
The art classes to open at the pottery this autumn are exciting wide interest, to which fresh impetus is given by the expected arrival of the
Japanese artist Ichidsuka Kenzo, whose services Mrs. Nichols has secured through Minister Bingham. The artist, his tools, his materials,
and an assistant will arrive in late September, and are secured, of
course, at a great outlay of money. Kenzo leaves his country by special
permission of his government, and is, we learn, the only artist of high
rank possessing the secrets of the potter's art who has received such
permission.14
The Art Journal of December 1881 reported that a Japanese decorator
had been engaged by Rookwood.15 It is probable that this report was derived
from the earlier Daily Gazette article. Research has failed to verify the arrival
of Kenzo and his assistant or any other Japanese decorator at Rookwood in
1881. It is most unlikely that the arrival of a Japanese decorator—indeed of
any Japanese—in Cincinnati at that time would have escaped notice.
Three vases by Maria Longworth
Nichols, 1880, potted and decorated at
the Frederick Dallas Pottery on Hamilton
Road (now McMicken Avenue). The
original photograph of these vases which
is in the archives of the Cincinnati Art
Museum is inscribed: "To Mr. A.T.
Goshorn with kind regards of Geo Ward
Nichols May 1880."
William Watts Taylor
began recording the shape
designs in 1883 in a ledger
called the Rookwood Shape
Book. This Aladdin Vase was
the first entry. Although the
decorator of the vase is
unknown, it is most probably
the work of Mrs. Nichols and
may have been among the
pieces fired in the first
Rookwood kiln in late 1880.
Much of the first year's production by Rookwood consisted of commercial
wares—breakfast and dinner services, pitchers, wine coolers, ice tubs, and
umbrella stands—not usually identified by a Rookwood mark. These commercial wares were intended to increase revenue in order to sustain the cost
of creating the more expensive artistic pieces. Hoping to keep production
cost of the commercial wares to a minimum, Mrs. Nichols introduced transfer printing in 1881. Clara Chipman Newton, secretary to Mrs. Nichols and
one of the earliest decorators at Rookwood, wrote:
The first steps of this process, engraving the copper plates, were exceedingly expensive. Finally the matter was adjusted on a somewhat more
economical basis than was at first supposed possible, and the designs
of birds, fishes, lobsters, etc., carefully selected from Japanese books
were prepared.16
Apparently this line of ware proved too expensive or unpopular, for only
two examples of Rookwood's transfer printing are known.17
The September 12, 1882 Crockery and Glass Journal reported that a "celebrated Japanese decorator with an unpronounceable name"18 was to arrive
at Rookwood. This report may have referred to Ichidsuka Kenzo, whose
services had been sought by Mrs. Nichols a year earlier.
Of the Japanese illustrated books known to have been used by Rookwood
decorators, Hokusafs Manga seems to have been the most popular and offers
one of the rare instances in which an actual source of decorative motifs can
be documented. The Manga, a compact fifteen-volume encyclopedic work
illustrating Japanese flora, fauna, imaginary creatures, folklore and legends,
grotesqueries, and manners and customs, was used widely by French artists
in the late nineteenth century. Hokusai's lively illustrations offered a rich
variety of fascinating subjects. The Cincinnati Art Museum has three early
pieces of Rookwood decorated wth motifs inspired by, if not copied directly
from, the Manga. Not surprisingly, two of the pieces were decorated by
Mrs. Nichols. Her use of Japanese motifs represents the Japanese influence
at its most imitative. Mrs. Nichols was particularly drawn to the grotesque
elements in Japanese art, copying designs crudely, rather than absorbing the
lessons in delicacy to be learned from Japanese art.
By 1883 it was evident that Rookwood required the leadership of a business manager if the pottery were to become independent. That year Mrs.
Nichols hired William Watts Taylor as general business manager to place
thefledglingpottery on a sound financial and artistic course. One of Taylor's
first measures was to record the shapes produced by Rookwood and to
analyze the sales of these shapes, determining whether they were successful
or not. To this end, Taylor had Clara Chipman Newton enter the shapes
producd up to then into a ledger called the Rookwood Shape Record Book,
58
the most valuable single document extant for the study of early Rookwood.
Each shape design entered into the ledger is accompanied by a thumbnailsize photograph or an ink or pencil sketch. Written descriptions of the source
of the shape, its decorator or decorators, its method of manufacture, whether
press molded, cast or thrown, and its sales record complete many of the
entries, in particular those shapes recorded the earliest. The Shape Record
Book documents the eclecticism of Rookwood in its formative period. Moreover, the Shape Book reveals the extent and nature of the Japanese influence
upon Rookwood. Pieces from Nichols' collection frequently served as prototypes. Among the numerous designs listed as being influenced by Japanese
examples are:
22. Jewel box, 1882. After Japanese design. Pressed with grasses,
butterflies. Not very saleable. 8 sold.
42. Japanese crock after model furnished by MLN 1884. 3 sold.
53. "Fish" entree dish. Japanese model, blue and white. $6 per dozen.
Oct. 1885. 35 sold.
80. Chocolate pot with spout at side, from Japanese vase MLN. 11
sold.
14Q. Footed bowl. After Japanese bronze. 1884.
244. Pressed bowl 1885 (afterwd. cast) by W. W. T. from Mrs. Nichols
Japanese wallpaper.
Although it is impossible to determine how or where Mrs. Nichols obtained
her Japanese art objects, it was not necessary for her to leave Cincinnati to
secure them. Besides important auctions of Japanese held in the city in the
1870's and 1880's, retailers in luxury goods carried Japanese art. Emery
H : Barton, dealer in artists' materials, pictures, and picture frames located
at 17 Emery Arcade, advertised in 1882 "Japanese Scrolls, & c." among other
works of art.19 The George T. Marsh and Company of San Francisco, an
importer and dealer in Japanese antiquities, curiosities and novelties, maintained a branch in Cincinnati from 1881 to 1883. Interestingly, in an 1883
advertisement in Beauties of California, Marsh and Company listed its five
branches: Yokohama, Tokio and Hiogo in Japan and Cincinnati and San
Francisco in the United States.20 That Marsh and Company considered
Cincinnati important enough to open a branch here was a testament to the
strong interest in Japanese art in the Queen City.
It is apparent that the Japanese influence on Rookwood in its early years
derived in part from contemporary European ceramics, in particular the
faience of Emile Galle. Galle's faience was carried by Schultze and Company,
a Cincinnati retailer in luxury goods, as early as 1880. The Cincinnati Gazette on October 7, 1880, reporting on newly-arrived European ceramics,
wrote: "Less rare, but very pleasing, is the Nancy faience, unique in shape,
59
and with exquisite decoration, by Galle."21 The Rookwood Shape Record
Book records four entries modeled after "Nancy ware:" Shape Number 102,
crushed vases; Shape Number 107, a vase; Shape Number n o , a crushed
pitcher; and Shape Number 115, another crushed pitcher. The four Nancy
ware prototypes which Rockwood copied were provided by Robert H. Galbreath, principal agent for Duhme and Company, another Cincinnati retailer in luxury goods. There is no doubt that "Nancy ware" in fact refers to
the pottery of Galle. Rookwood produced imitative pieces with shapes and
decorations almost identical to those of extant Galle faience.
Galle himself knew of Rookwood's imitations of his Japonisme ceramics.
This is documented in a July 9, 1887 letter from William Watts Taylor to
Gordon Shillito:
I was somewhat annoyed but more amused to hear through Messrs.
Duhme & Co. that Mr. Email Gaille [sic] of Nancy had told you that Rookwood was copying his trademark.
I believe Mr. Morris showed you a number of pieces bearing our regular stamps which you no doubt observed bear no resemblance whatever
to Mr. G. But I would like you, if not too much trouble . . . see the
gentleman on your return, to assure him that he is under an entirely
mistaken impression.
Taylor ends by writing "I dislike to have Rookwood classed among the
'pirates' who are making careful reproductions of European work and calling
it 'American' art."22
Taylor appears to have willfully misunderstood Galle's complaint. Galle
believed that Rookwood was copying not his mark but his forms and style, as
in fact that pottery had done from 1881 to 1883 before Taylor arrived at
Rookwood. From Taylor's letter it seems clear that Galle and Gordon Shillito
knew each other. Shillito may have shown Galle examples of Rookwood's
imitations of the Nancy artist's faience.
During a three year period from 1883 to 1886 several events occurred
which led to the development of a distinctive Rookwood style and brought the
formative period of the firm to an end. In 1883, Laura A. Fry adapted the
mouth atomizer as an instrument to apply an even-colored slip ground to
green ware. Grounds of different colors could be laid one over the other to
create delicate graduations. This technical innovation permitted the blending of slip-painted decorations with an atmospheric ground and led almost
at once to a change in subject matter. Japanesque grotesqueries and humorous subjects painted in a primitive manner were largely replaced by delicate,
lyrical renderings of floral subjects arranged asymmetrically over simple
forms. The slight relief of the underglaze slip painting was suggestive of
Japanese lacquer decoration.
60
Rookwood's first two distinct lines-the Cameo wares and Standard Ware
—were introduced in the mid-1880's about the same time. The Cameo and
Cameo Bisque, the former with a clear high glaze and the latter with a nonglossy smear glaze, were as pastel as the Standard Ware was richly dark and
mysterious. Subjects drawn from Japanese imagery, yet interpreted in an
"American" manner, prevailed as the decoration of the Cameo line: calligraphically rendered bamboo and other grasses swaying in the breeze,
swallows in flight or about to alight, hovering butterflies, and of course
blossoms and plants.
The accidental creation of an aventurine glaze in 1884, named Tiger
Eye, set the pottery on a course of experiments. Clay bodies, applied decorations, shape designs, and glazes were tested to achieve the most pleasing
visual effects and to reduce the high risks of damage or destruction in firing.
Examples of other art potteries, both American and European, were widely
studied, and a Record Museum of Rookwood's own productions was established as an archive. There is reason to believe that examples of Japanese
ceramics were also collected by Rookwood for study purposes.23
The Art Amateur of December 1885 reported that Mrs. Nichols "has sent
to Japan for a native decorator of high reputation . . . ." The anonymous
writer admonishes Mrs. Nichols to refrain from producing Japanese pottery
in America.
In congratulating this lady on the latest evidence of her enterprise
and good judgment, we venture to hope that she will insist that a distinctive American character be given to her ware. It will be a serious
mistake if the artist who is to be brought here is required to do nothing
but make Japanese pottery in America.24
The writer was very much aware of the influence which Japanese art had
already exerted upon the youthful pottery. In a shop on Broadway he had
seen a Rookwood teapot priced at $2.50, and a few doors farther down he
had seen a Japanese teapot of almost exactly the same shape priced at only
50 cents.
A slender bit of information in Stanley G. Burt's holograph of 1916 listing
the 2,292 pieces of Rookwood pottery then on loan to the Cincinnati Art
Museum suggests that a Japanese decorator had visited Rookwood in i885.
Under that year appears the following entry in Burt's holograph:
25. Dish #2,wh[white] clay (poor color) clear gl.[glaze] slip painting with
Jap[Japanese] letters and signature M.Haigo Rookwood 1885-28 D.25
To conclude from this entry that a Japanese decorator, one M. Haigo, had
decorated a piece of Rookwood in 1885 is hazardous. There is no evidence,
61
This page from the Osui Gafu-Nihen by Asai
Osui was obtained for the Cincinnati Art
Museum through the Edwin and Virginia
lrwin Memorial.
On September ig, 1886, the Cincinnati
Enquirer announced the arrival of the
"Japanese Village" for the Thirteenth
Cincinnati Industrial Exposition.
for example, that the dish was both potted and decorated in 1885, although
slip painting at Rookwood customarily followed shortly after the creation of
a form. A Rookwood teajar in a private collection bears the impressed date
of 1885 but is signed and dated "M.H./1886." This jar, painted in blue over
the glaze with foliate arabesques, may have been decorated by M. Haigo who
was trained in decorating ceramics over the glaze.
Burt's entry for the dish creates confusion in that the number 28D does
not correspond to a shape of the same number in the Shape Record Book.
Two entries appear in the Shape Book for Shape Number 28: a lamp vase
modeled after an antique vase, depicted in a small photograph, and a cylindrical vase with a trumpet-flared lip.
Masuo Haigo is known to have visited Cincinnati in 1886 as a member of
the traveling "Japanese Village" which appeared at the Industrial Exposition.
The Japanese mania in Cincinnati climaxed in 1886, and the formative
period of the Rookwood Pottery came to a close. In March of that year
Professor Edward S. Morse, a noted traveler, author, scholar, and Japanophile, delivered four lectures in Cincinnati on Japanese subjects. The third
lecture, presented on March 9, covered Japanese painting, pottery, tea
ceremonies, ceramics, and drawing schools. Professor Morse was the guest
of Mrs. Nichols, with whom he shared a strong interest in Japanese art.26
It is probable that Mrs. Nichols sponsored Morse's lectures as part of the
gala celebrations leading up to the opening of the Cincinnati Art Museum
in its newly-constructed building in Eden Park. On March 13, 1886, the
Women's Art Museum Association engaged Morse to speak about the "Manners and Customs of the Japanese."27
While in Cincinnati, Morse suggested the shapes for two flower vases
which were entered in the Shape Book as Numbers 272 and 273. These were
slight variations of the same Japanese form: a thrown small ovoid body with
a wide,flowing,and flared lip.
Morse's sojourn in Cincinnati was not wholly devoted to lecturing and
attending social affairs occasioned by the marriage of his hostess to Bellamy
Storer on March 10: it was also a matter of business. By the time Morse
returned to Salem, Massachusetts, Mrs. Storer had purchased from him
some 670 pieces of Japanese pottery, duplicates culled from his collection.
Her check for $3,500 arrived in time for Morse to pay an overdue note.28
The entry for an almond dish assigned Shape Number 280 in the Shape
Book in April 1886 reads: "From shape in Mrs. Storer's Morse Collection."
Mrs. Storer lent her Japanese pottery collection to the Cincinnati Art Museum
ini888. 2 9
Desperate for money, Morse offered to sell a collection of Japanese teajars to the Cincinnati Art Museum. In a letter of April 26, 1886 to General
Alfred T. Goshorn, Director of the Art Museum, Morse wrote:
I have lately had intrusted [sic] to me a large collection of Japanese
tea jars with their brocade bags and boxes. Most of them are duplicated
in my collection . . . . The bulk of them I must dispose of and rather to
have them go in smaller lots to private parties it has occurred to me that
possibly your museum might take the larger number about 150 at the
price of eleven hundred dollars.30
Morse added that if 150 were too many he could offer a lot of 100 for $600
or an even smaller lot of fifty for $500. Morse acknowledged Mrs. Storer's
desire to have his collection ultimately go to the Cincinnati Art Museum,
noting "that if such a thing should happen in the future I would take back
the tea jars at the price paid for them." The Museum did not purchase the
teajars, either because it lacked funds or, more probably, because Mrs. Storer
made known her intention to lend her collection to the Museum.
Mrs. Storer held Morse's collection of Japanese pottery in such high esteem
that she sent Laura A. Fry and Albert R. Valentien, two of Rookwood's most
accomplished decorators, to Salem, where they "spent several days in making drawings of a few attractive pieces . . . . " 31 Shape Numbers 136, 275,
305 and 307 were inspired by pottery in the Morse Collection. In turn, in
1888, Morse sent suggestions for shape designs based on Japanese prototypes, and these were entered in the Shape Book. Other Japanese-inspired
shape designs came from friends and business acquaintances of Mrs. Storer
and Rook wood.
Besides the collection of Japanese pottery, Mrs. Storer also lent the Cincinnati Art Museum sixty-one Japanese textiles—fukusas—in 1886 and 1888
and several painted silk scrolls. The birds, flowers, plants, aquatic life, and
other decorative subjects on the fukusas and scrolls represented a catalogue
of similar subjects used by Rookwood decorators of the period.32 Mrs. Storer's
collection of Japanese art on loan to the Art Museum was accessible to the
Rookwood decorators, who doubtless were encouraged to avail themselves of
the works.
Shortly before the opening of the Cincinnati Art Museum in May 1886,
the Women's Art Museum Association disbanded, its goal of establishing an
art museum with a training school having been achieved. One of the last
pieces donated to the Art Museum by the Association was a small vase
executed by the French Japonisme decorator Henri J. M. Pottier.33 The two
geese and six flying swallows on the vase were copied directly from a single
page of birds and fowl in volume 4 of Hokusai's Manga. This gift underscored the interest in contemporary European ceramics and Japanese art
in Cincinnati.
The Japanese mania in Cincinnati continued to a frenzied pitch in late
1886 with the arrival of the Deakin Brothers and Company's "Japanese
Village" on September 19. The featured attraction of the Thirteenth Cincin64
nati Industrial Exposition, the Village was composed of some sixty to seventy
men, women, and children plying their trades and demonstrating their
crafts. In the prologue to the program of events appeared the following selfcongratulations : "The finest skilled labor in Japan has been selected to
people this little Japanese village, and native materials have been specially
gathered—doors, mats, samples, ware and tools, of a thousand descriptionsamounting in all to fifty tons, the whole being transported and produced in
its present condition at enormous expense." The prologue further proclaimed the Village "a stupendous enterprise, and as a result cannot fail to
mark a new era in its impress upon the American public, which for the first
time gazes upon the revealed secrets of Japanese art."34 Between 1885 and
1887 the Village traveled throughout the United States, making stops in
Milwaukee, Chicago, Omaha, St. Louis, Cincinnati, New York, and Boston.
The Japanese Village offered Cincinnatians an exciting glimpse into Japanese customs, manners, and arts. The Village included twenty-four separate
artistic occupations, events, and areas. A visitor could view potters and modelers, pottery and porcelain decorators, cabinet makers, silk weavers and
embroiderers, metalsmiths, painters, and barbers at work. A fine art exhibit,
a shop of curios, Panorama of Japan, a parlor, and an ochaya, or teahouse,
provided additional amusement.
Not all was work in the Village. In the evenings members of the Village
performed the "Dai Nippon Hakurankai," which provided dramatic entertainment and ample opportunity for the artists to demonstrate their skills.
The scenario was drawn from medieval Japanese history and was set at
Hakone Sekisho (gateway) on the Tokaido (government road) at the foot
of the Hakone mountain pass. In centuries past, Japanese subjects could not
travel without passports. To travel to Kyoto (Kioto), the old Capital, one
had to pass several gateways along the Tokaido. As the artists had no passports, they had to perform their skills in order to pass safely through each
gateway. Two of the traveling artists listed in the programme were Shirayamadani and Haigo Masuo.3^ The latter was a Bishu porcelain painter.
Shirayamadani was a painter also, although whether of pottery or porcelain
is not known.36
For Mrs. Storer the Japanese Village must have been a dream come true.
Since the Centennial a decade earlier, she had entertained the dream of
importing a Japanese pottery—workmen and all—to Cincinnati. While the
Japanese Village did not fulfill this dream it did the next best thing by bringing together in one place a group of potters, modelers, and ceramic decorators.
The Japanese Village was not an attraction which could go unnoticed by
Rookwood's technicians and decorators. Indeed, the Village presented a superb opportunity for Rookwood artists and craftsmen to compare their ceramic techniques with traditional Japanese methods. In an article published
65
in The Chautauquan of 1886, a potter at Rookwood made reference to the
Village when he asked the author: " 'Have you seen the Jap clay modeler at
the Expo? Do you see how differently I work from him?' " 37 Moreover, there
is reason to believe that members of the Village were invited to Rookwood
to decorate pottery, a courtesy the company came to extend to visiting dignitaries. In Burt's holograph, under the year 1886, appears the following
terse entry:
23. 24 Sml. [small] vases red clay bisc. [biscuit or bisque] with slip dec.
[decoration] signature on foot in Jap. [Japanese] letters.38
Perhaps, in search for a Japanese decorator, Rookwood had invited the pottery decorators in the Village to demonstrate their skills in underglaze slip
painting. It seems more than mere coincidence that Shirayamadani should
arrive at Rookwood six months following the appearance of the Village in
Cincinnati. Furthermore, except for the year 1885, Burt lists no pieces of
Rookwood decorated by unknown Japanese.
The arrival of the Japanese Village in 1886 marked the climax of the
Japanese mania in Cincinnati and signaled a second phase in Rookwood's
courting of Japanese art. The direct imitation of Japanese shapes and decorative motifs, already on the wane, ceased. Floral subjects rendered in a
highly naturalistic manner and sometimes stylized became the predominate
subject matter. Japanese art was no longer treated as an exotic curiosity;
rather, the lessons to be learned from Japanese art were assimilated into the
mainstream of the Rockwood aesthetic.
After Mrs. Nichols' marriage to Bellamy Storer in 1886, following the
death of George Ward Nichols the previous year, she relinquished her commanding interest in Rookwood, leaving the operation of the pottery in the
capable hands of William Watts Taylor.
On May 3, 1887, Mrs. Storer's dream of having a Japanese decorator at
Rookwood came true. On that date Kataro Shirayamadani arrived at Rookwood. He came to Cincinnati from Boston, his services having been secured
through the help of Louis Wertheimer, a Boston dealer in Oriental art. On
May 4,1887 William Watts Taylor wrote to Wertheimer:
The young Japanese arrived yesterday before your letter but found
his way here without difficulty.
One of our decorators has found quarters for him temporarily in his
boarding home.
Mrs. Storer and the writer are quite pleased with his appearance and
manners and the experiment seems quite worthwhile to make.
We have thought best to put him at once at underglaze painting (in
the wet clay) because the technique requires practice. . . . Moreover,
66
In 1898 the Rookwood
Pottery donated to the
Cincinnati Art Museum
208 Japanese teapots.
Mrs. Henrietta Haller gave Ryusen GafuJimbutsu, Gyochu no Bu by Yanagawa
Shigeiiobu, ca. 182,0, to the Cincinnati Art
Museum.
Mrs. Storefs feeling is that it would be little object to have him merely
reproduce the overglaze work here which is so much better and more
cheaply done in Japan. What we want is the merit of their painting developed under our conditions—in short Japanese Rookwood [author's
emphasis].39
Interestingly, on March 10, 1887 Taylor had written to a Mr. Y. Tomita,
in care of the Japanese Village in Washington, D.C., to say that Rookwood
could not employ a Mr. Yamada.40 It is probable that by March 1887, if not
earlier, Rookwood was endeavoring to engage Shirayamadani. Doubtless
Shirayamadani had left the Village in Boston to find reliable employment. It
was not uncommon for members of the Village to leave the troop along the
way for this very purpose.
Six months after his arrival at Rookwood, Sharayamadani's decorated
work was introduced to the public. In October 1887, examples of his decorated Rookwood were premiered at the Piedmont Exposition in Atlanta.
Shirayamadani's pieces were marked with an "X" to distinguish them from
the work of other decorators.41
In his correspondence, especially with Rookwood's agents, Taylor lost no
chance to promote Shirayamadani. Moreover, Taylor included references to
the young Japanese decorator in the pottery's advertisements in popular
American magazines. That Rookwood had the good fortune to employ a
Japanese decorator was indeed a coup to be celebrated. Within a short time
Shirayamadani became one of Rookwood's principal decorators. While he
seems to have produced perceptible "Japanese" influence upon the other
decorators, the conception and exquisite refinement of his decorations as
well as his mere presence no doubt inspired the decorating staff.
One of the most striking features of Rookwood in the mid-1880's was the
turn to nature for almost all decorative subjects. To assist the decorators,
Rookwood maintained a library of watercolor sketches, drawings, photographs, clippings, periodicals, and books. Among the periodicals to which
Rookwood subscribed was S. Bing's Artistic Japan.42 Decorators were encouraged to keep their own sketchbooks and designs. Rookwood required
that its decorators be proficient in oil and watercolor painting, especially
the latter, because slip painting demanded accuracy, a steady hand, and
above all speed.
Rookwood decorators frequently went directly to nature for subject matter. On Saturdays in the late 1880's, decorators were often invited to the
Japanese water-lily and lotus pond laid out by Reuben Warden on his estate
at North Bend, an outlying district near Cincinnati.43 After Rookwood moved
its plant to Mt. Adams in 1892, the Pottery maintained a garden of cultivated flowers and plants to beautify the grounds and to provide floral specimens for the decorators. Although pottery decorating required an indoor
68
studio, freshly cut flowers and plants were regularly studied and copied. By
the early 1890's Rookwood decorators were using two hundred flowers and
plants as decorative subjects and were adding to this number constantly.44
Rookwood won its first major international recognition in 1889 at the
Paris Exposition Universelle when its wares were awarded a Gold Medal.
That French critics faulted the pottery for its dependence on the Japanese
seems ironic in light of the continuing strength of Japanese influence upon
French decorative art. Following the award of the Gold Medal and the concomitant publicity, Rookwood gained financial solvency after a decade of
subsidization by Mrs. Storer.
During the 1890's, interest in Japanese art remained strong in Cincinnati,
but without the intensity of the previous two decades. By the mid-1890's the
attractions of Japanese art had ceased to be novel, and the influence exerted
by Japan had been assimilated into the mainstream of American art.
Whereas the Industrial Expositions of the late 1870's and 1880's had fanned
the flame of the Japanese mania in the Queen City, in the last decade of the
nineteenth century and early years of the twentieth century the Cincinnati
Art Museum came to fill a similar role, albeit in a much less spectacular way.
Recognizing the popular and the increasingly scholarly interest in Japanese art, the Cincinnati Art Museum promoted this interest by accepting
many gifts and loans of Japanese and other oriental art. In 1887, one year
after the Museum opened its new building in Eden Park, John W. Bookwaiter of Springfield, Ohio, lent his large collection which included Japanese sword guards, knife handles, bronze sculpture, cloisonne, lacquer,
kakemonos, embroidered textiles, and carved ivories and bamboo.45
The Cincinnati Art Museum followed and further encouraged public interest in Japanese art through its schedule of temporary exhibitions. In 1896
the Art Museum exhibited in two separate displays 735 Japanese paintings
and color prints from the W. H. Ketcham Collection.46 During this exhibition, Rookwood engaged Professor Ernest F. Fenollosa, an authority on
Japanese art and an advisor to W. H. Ketcham, to deliver a lecture for the
benefit of the Pottery's decorators, as well as the public.47 While in Cincinnati Fenollosa delivered a lecture on Japanese art at the Art Museum in the
galleries in which the Ketcham Collection was shown.
A second exhibition of Japanese art opened at the Museum in October of
1900.48 One hundred colored photographs of Japanese subjects carefully
selected by K. Shirayamadani were shown to the public. The following year
the Art Museum purchased eleven of the photographs of temples, gardens,
and architecture in Tokyo from Shirayamadani.49 During the last two
decades of the nineteenth century and the first two of the present, the Cincinnati Art Museum and Rookwood Pottery maintained a close relationship.
From 1895 to his death in 1913 William Watts Taylor was a trustee of the
Art Museum, serving terms on the Classifications Committee, which voted
69
on the purchase of works of art. Although funds for acquisitions were modest, the Museum regularly purchased Japanese color prints from 1897 to the
First World War.so Undoubtedly, Taylor had an influential voice in these
purchases. Moreover, as a Museum trustee Taylor could keep the Rookwood
decorators informed of purchases which might be of particular interest.
Rookwood Pottery regularly presented the Art Museum with examples of
its productions in the 1890's. Furthermore, by 1916 Rookwood had on loan
to the Museum some 2,300 pieces of its pottery dating from 1880 to that
year. In 1898, Rookwood donated a collection of 208 Japanese teapots to the
Museum "with the understanding that the donor may from time to time
borrow pieces for study at the Pottery".51 Two years later Rookwood presented the Museum with a second gift of Japanese ceramics, this time 312
vases, incense burners, teajars, bottles, and wine cup stands.52
From 1894 to 1915 Rookwood regularly introduced new glaze and decorative lines in order to appeal to a larger buying public, and of course, to
remain ahead of the Pottery's imitators and competitors. Within a three
month period in 1894, three new glaze lines were rapidly introduced. The
Iris and Sea Green glazes proved popular, but the Aerial Blue was produced
for only a brief period. While the rich colors of the Standard Ware continued
to sell, the paler palettes of the Iris and Sea Green glazes acknowledged the
competition of popular changes in European decorative hues. By the end of
the 1890's Rookwood had become one of countless decorative arts firms
throughout Europe and America which felt the force of the Art Nouveau then
emanating from France. Whereas the Japanese influence which entered
Rookwood through Galle's Japonisme ceramics in the early 1880's is easily
discernible, it is much more difficult to determine to what extent the treatment of floral subjects in the Art Nouveau was tempered by the Japanese.
Indeed, by the 1890's the French had had a half century to assimilate Japanese art into their decorative arts tradition.
Although the influence of Japanese art upon Rookwood continued through
the 1890's and well into the twentieth century, this influence became progressively submerged. Intermittently, pieces were created which clearly
showed their indebtedness to Japanese prints, paintings, stencils, and other
works of art. A revival of interest in oriental forms and decorative subjects as
late as the 1920's underscored the tenacity with which Japanese art held
Rookwood captive for forty years.
The exuberant Japanesque decorations of Mrs. Nichols in the 1870's and
1880's did not in themselves leave any great legacy to American ceramic art,
but the work of brilliant decorators at the pottery which she founded surely
did. The freedom with which nature was recorded by Rookwood artists could
not have developed without the example of Japanese artists and the rich
catalogue of their decorative subjects. Moreover, the ceramics of Japan
afforded Rookwood a treasure trove of forms, bodies, glazes, decorations,
.
70
and techniques from which to draw continued inspiration.
Mrs. Nichols' tireless enthusiasm for Japanese design during the decade
after the Centennial found avid support among patrons and practitioners of
the arts in Cincinnati. The city's Industrial Expositions in the 1870's and
1880's featured well publicized showcases for Japanese art and culture,
stimulating the interest of many thousands who did not ordinarily attend
the frequent public lectures, exhibitions and sales, and displays of private
collections all centering on Japanese subjects. After the final Industrial Exposition in 1888, the Cincinnati Art Museum continued for many years a
program rich in offerings designed to maintain the vitality of the Queen
City's interest in Japanese art.
The arts of Japan exerted a positive and enduring influence upon the direction of Rookwood and the decorative arts movement in Cincinnati. It
would be difficult to exaggerate either the strength of this influence or the
force of Rookwood's example upon the American Arts and Crafts Movement.
As Japanese objects continue to come to light and as more documents pertinent to the subject are discovered, the Japanese influence upon the arts
in Cincinnati is certain to receive the scholarly attention it deserves.
KENNETH R. TRAPP, Curator of Education of the Cincinnati Art Museum,
is a Ph.D. candidate in art history at the University of Illinois and has published several articles on the Japanese influence on Rookwood Pottery.
(1) For information about the influence of
Japanese art in Europe see Elizabeth Aslin,
The Aesthetic Movement: Prelude to Art
Nouveau (New York, 1969); World
Cultures and Modern Art: The Encounter
of 19th and 2.0th Century European Art
and Music xvith Asia, Africa, Oceania,
Afro-and Indo-America, exhibition
catalogue on the occasion of the Games of
the XXth Olympiad, Munich, 1972; Gabriel
P. Weisberg, et al, Japonisme: Japanese
Influence on French Art 1854-1910, exhibition catalogue, The Cleveland Museum
of Art, The Rutgers University Art Gallery,
and The Walters Art Gallery, 1975.
(2) Rose G. Kingsley, Rookwood Pottery,
The Art Journal, XL, December 1897,
p. 342.
(3 ) Ibid.
(4) Charles Wyllys Elliott in "Pottery at
the Centennial," Atlantic Monthly,
XXXVIII, November 1876, p. 575, wrote:
"Twelve dinner-plates, designed by
Bracquemond, once at Sevres, are good;
but as they are simply imitations of Japanese birds and plants, one is again
impelled to ask, Why should not this artist
have spent his strength upon the birds and
plants of France?" Little did Elliott realize
how pervasive Japonisme was in French
industrial design. Nor could he know that
a taste for the Japanese would soon become the fashionable rage in America.
Three of the twelve plates from he Service
Parisien were illustrated in Jennie L.
Young, The Ceramic Art: A Compendium
of the History and Manufacture of Pottery
and Porcelain (New York, 1878), pp. 321322. For more information about he
Service Parisien see Gabriel P. Weisberg,
"Felix Bracquemond and Japanese Influence in Ceramic Decoration," The Art
Bulletin, LI, September 1969, pp. 277-280,
and Jean d'Albis and Celeste Romanet, ha
Art Museum. The Aladdin Vase is signed
in black on the exterior surface "A.R.
Valentine/1833." Although born
"Valentine," he changed the spelling of
his surname in the early 1880's to
"Valentien."
All four vases share common stylistic
traits. Grotesque fish, marine creatures,
shells, and reptiles in varying heights of
relief, and cloud-like swirls applied
vigorously in slip, encircle the massive
vases. Fishing net in gilded relief completes the decorative program of one
Aladdin Vase. The repellent subject and
heavy-handed execution of the decoration
create an overpowering visual impact.
(13) Mrs. Aaron F. Perry, "Decorative
Pottery of Cincinnati," Harper's New
Monthly Magazine, LXII, April 1881,
Porcelain de Limoges, Paris, 1980.
(5) George Ward Nichols, Art Education
Applied to Industry (New York, 1877),
p. 203.
(6) Hokusai's Manga, or Random
Sketches; Katsushika Isai's Kacho Sansui
Zushiki, or Paintings of Flowers, Birds,
Mountains, and Water; Yanagawa
Shigenobu's Ryusen Gafu-Jimbutsu,
Gyochu no Bu, or The Book of PicturesParts of Figures, Fish and Insects by
Yanagawa; and Kokon Meika Gafu, or
Book of Paintings by Old and Modern
Masters.
The author is most grateful to Dr. Osamu
Ueda, Associate Curator of Oriental Art,
The Art Institute of Chicago, who helped
to identify the Japanese sources for the
designs in Pottery, How It Is Made.
(7) See Loan Collection Exhibition, Prepared by The Women's Art Museum
Association of Cincinnati, Cincinnati,
1878.
(8) Catalogue of the Yedo-Nausau Collection of the Choicest Japanese Works of
Art, exhibition and sale on and after May
13, 1878, Jacob Graff and Company,
Cincinnati, p. [2], pamphlet, Cincinnati
Historical Society.
(9) The original sepia-colored photograph
is in the Cincinnati Art Museum Archives.
A vase of the same shape and decoration
as that in the center of the photograph is
in the Cincinnati Art Museum (1952.406).
(10 ) Exhibition of Japanese Art
Treasures, Ceramics of the Orient,
pamphlet, Cincinnati Historical Society.
(11) Alice C. Hall, "Cincinnati Faience,"
Potter's American Monthly, XV, August
1880, pp. 362-363.
(12) It is believed that the Aladdin Vase
—Shape Number 1 in the Rookwood Shape
Book (The Rookwood Collection, The
Cincinnati Historical Society), was
among the pieces drawn from the
first kiln. Three Aladdin vases besides
the one pictured in the Shape Record
Book are known today; two are in private
collections and one, decorated by Albert
R. Valentine in 1883, is in the Cincinnati
P-837(14) "Mrs. Nichols' Pottery," Cincinnati
Daily Gazette, August 22, 1881, p. 5. As
with many Japanese names recorded in
English print, the name "Ichidsuka" is
problematic; according to scholars, the
name is not correctly Japanese. A study of
the papers of Minister John A. Bingham
in the Ohio Historical Society failed to
provide further information.
(15) The Art Journal, N.S. VII, December
1881, p. 380. An attempt is made by Duke
Coleman and Cliff R. Leonard in Rookwood
Pottery Potpourri, 1980, pp. 84-85, to
assign to Ichidsuka Kenzo and his unnamed assistant the ciphers of unknown
Japanese decorators recorded by Stanley
G. Burt in his 1916 holograph listing of
Rookwood then on loan to the Cincinnati
Art Museum. Unfortunately, no substantial evidence supports this assignment.
(16) As quoted in Herbert Peck, The Book
of Rookwood Pottery (New York, 1968),
P- 15(17) Because of her unpleasant relationship with Rookwood, Laura A. Fry may
have chosen to donate her ceramic pieces
to the then City Art Museum of St. Louis
(now the St. Louis Art Museum) rather
than to the Cincinnati Art Museum. In
1910, her father, William Henry Fry, had a
72
highly successful exhibition of his woodcarvings at the Art Museum in St. Louis.
A shallow dish given to the St. Louis Art
Museum in 1911 by Laura A. Fry is decorated with a variety of fish, crabs, a prawn,
and insects. The designs were taken
directly from Shigenobu's Ryusen Gafu
The second example of transfer printing
is a circular plate in the Philadelphia
Museum of Art. It too is decorated with
designs from the Ryusen Gafu.
(18) "Cincinnati Reports," Crockery and
Glass Journal, September 1882, p. 46.
(19) Illustrated Catalogue of the Art
Department. Cincinnati Industrial Exposition 1882, Cincinnati, 1882, n. p.
( 20 ) A photocopy of this advertisement is
in the author's possession.
(21) "Art Pottery," Cincinnati Daily
Gazette, October 7, 1880, p. 8. Examples
of Nancy ceramics and other European art
potteries were displayed in the Industrial
Exposition of 1879. "The Exposition,"
Cincinnati Enquirer, September 27, 1879,
p. 7.
(22) William Watts Taylor to Gordon
Shillito, Cincinnati, Ohio, July 9, 1887,
Letter Book I (December 23, 1886October 11,1887), p. 319, Mitchell
Memorial Library, Mississippi State University, Starkville, Mississippi. Even Mrs.
Storer acknowledged Galle's influence on
Rookwood. In a letter of September 4, 1893
to Mary Louise McLaughlin she wrote that
"some older French works, and Galle are
more responsible for Rookwood."
(23) The Rookwood Record Museum was
dispersed decades ago. William Watts
Taylor, who died in 1913, bequeathed to
the Cincinnati Art Museum his art pottery
collection containing several unidentified
pieces, one an apparent European imitation of Rookwood. Taylor's bequest to the
Art Museum deserves study in itself.
were hardly considered worthy of serious
attention. Even before the Centennial
closed, there came calls for Americans to
produce a uniquely "American" art. But
few, if any, had a clear idea of what an
"American" art should be. The initial
phase of the Arts and Crafts Movement in
America was heavily influenced by
European and Japanese designs. In 1885,
five years after its founding, Rookwood's
wares were not distinctively American, so
indebted was the pottery to Japanese,
French, and English art.
(25) Mr. S. G. Burt's Record Book of Ware
at Art Museum, 2,292 pieces of early
Rookwood Pottery in the Cincinnati Art
Museum in 1916 (The Cincinnati Historical Society, 1978), p. 46. The original Burt
holograph is in The Cincinnati Historical
Society.
(26) "Chat on Japan," Cincinnati Daily
Times-Star, March 2, 1886, p. 6. For more
information about Morse see Money
Hickman and Peter Fetchko, Japan Day by
Day: an Exhibition in Honor of Edward
Sylvester Morse, exhibition catalogue,
Peabody Museum of Salem,
Massachusetts, 1977.
(27) [Elizabeth Williams Perry], A Sketch
of the Women's Art Museum Association
of Cincinnati 1877-1886 (Cincinnati,
1886),p. 125.
(28) Dorothy G. Wayman, Edward
Sylvester Morse: A Biography (Cambridge,
Massachusetts, 1942), p. 306.
(29) The Storer Collection of Japanese
pottery was recalled from the Art Museum
in 1976 by Mrs. Storer's grandson, JeanPierre, Marquis de Chambrun, and was
sold at auction in London in 1978. See
Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co., London,
Japanese Pottery, Porcelain, Netsuke and
Lacquer including a Collection of Pottery,
February 22, 1978.
(30) Letter, April 26,1886 from Professor
Edward S. Morse to General Alfred T.
Goshorn, Cincinnati Art Museum Library,
Archives, Director's Correspondence, 1886,
Folder L-N, letter M-12.
(31) Sylvester Baxter, "The Morse Collection of Japanese Pottery," reprint from
(24) "Ceramic Enterprise in Cincinnati,"
The Art Amateur, XIV, December 1885,
p. 19. Although the Centennial Exhibition
proved America was equal to European
nations in technological advancements,
the nation's industrial artistic productions
73
The American Architect, May 28, 1877,
Salem, Massachusetts, Essex Institute,
1887, p. 16.
(32) The Storer fukusas and painted
scrolls were recalled from the Art Museum
by Mrs. Storer's heirs in 1980.
(33) For more information about the three
Henri J. M. Pottier pieces given to the
Museum by the Women's Art Museum
Association see Kenneth R. Trapp, "Henri
J. M. Pottier: A Rediscovered French
Japonisme Decorator in the Cincinnati Art
Museum," The Decorative Arts Newsletter,
III (Winter 1977-1978), pp. 3-8.
(34) [Deakin Brothers and Company],
Trip Through Japan. Dai Nippon Hakurankai and Temple of the Arts and
Industries of Japan, [San Francisco?],
1885, n. p. Louise Revol, Associate Curator
of History, The Oakland Museum, sent the
author a copy of this program, as well as
copies of clippings from various newspapers in cities which hosted the
"Japanese Village."
(35) Ibid.
(36) From a newspaper clipping (author's
possession) entitled "Crowding the Japs,"
no city, no date, no page. Only the name
"Shirayamadani" is listed. The name
"Haigo Masuo" appears in the Japanese
manner and not as "Masuo Haigo." The
Oakland Museum in California has a
scrapbook of memorabilia from the
Frederick Deakin family with two watercolors, one by Haigo Masuo and the other
by Shirayamadani.
(37) Ida M. Tarbell, "The Arts and Industries of Cincinnati" The Chautauquan,
VII, December 1886, p. 162.
(38) Burt's Record Book, p. 57. In the rush
to catalogue the vast collection of Rookwood on loan to the Art Museum, it is
probable that Burt failed to think to ask
Shirayamadani to translate the Japanese
signatures or to ask him who M. Haigo was.
(39) William Watts Taylor to Louis
Wertheimer, Boston, Massachusetts, May
4,1887, Letter Book I, Mississippi State
University Library, pp. 183-184. The spelling of both Shirayamadani's names pre-
74
sented problems for Americans. What an
American would consider Shirayamadani's
given, or first, name is spelled three ways
in the literature: Kataro, Ketaro and
Kitaro. To avoid the spelling altogether,
frequently his name appears merely as
"K. Shirayamadani." Virginia Cummins,
who knew Shirayamadani, tells me he
spelled his name "Kataro." The spelling
"Kitaro" appears on Shirayamadani's
death certificate in City Hall, Cincinnati.
Death certificates are not, however, always
reliable documents, as even Shirayamadani's proves. In October 1897, Shirayamadani united with The First Church of
Christ, Scientist, in Boston and Cincinnati.
In the union his name is typed "Kitaro,"
although he signed it simply "K. Shirayamadani." To confuse matters even more,
I have been told that the spelling "Kitaro"
is correctly Japanese while the other variations are not. Interestingly, there seems
to be no documented spelling of Shirayamadani's first name by him.
(40) William Watts Taylor to Y. Tomita,
Washington, D. C, 10 March 1887, Letter
Book I, MSU Library, p. 109. Yadama was
a painter with the "Japanese Village."
Correspondence from Louise Revol to the
author June 7, 1978.
(41) William Watts Taylor to W. H.
Smyth, Atlanta, Georgia, October 4, 1887,
Letter Book I, MSU Library, p. 480.
(42) Unfortunately, only a very few of
the books, periodicals, photographs, and
other material from Rookwood's extensive
library have survived. A private collection
of material from that library includes the
English edition of Bing's Artistic Japan.
It is stamped "ROOKWOOD POTTERY."
(43) Wilbur Stout, "Art Pottery," in
Chapter 1 of "History of the Clay Industry
in Ohio," in Geological Survey of Ohio,
Bulletin 26 (1923), p. 92.
(44) William Watts Taylor to Messrs. C.
Hennecke and Company, Chicago, Illinois,
December 12, 1890, Letter Book V
October 31,1890, July 10,1891), MSU
Library, p. 86.
(45) Catalogue of Objects Loaned by
Mr. John W. Book-waiter, to the Cincinnati
Museum Association, Cincinnati Art Museum, loan exhibition catalogue, 1901,
PP- 53-75- Examples of knife handles,
sword guards, ferrules for sword handles,
and clips for sword handles from the
Bookwalter Collection were accessioned
by the Art Museum in 1919.
(46) Catalogue of Japanese Paintings and
Color Prints Exhibited in the Art Museum,
Cincinnati, from the First to the Fifteenth
of March, 1896, Cincinnati Art Museum,
exhibition catalogue, 1896.
(47) Peck, Rookwood Pottery, p. 54.
(48) Special Exhibition of One Hundred
Colored Photographs of Japanese Subjects
Carefully Selected by Mr. K. Shirayamadani, October 7-31, 1900, Cincinnati Art
Museum, announcement, 1900.
(49) Cincinnati Art Museum Purchases,
p. 80, Registration Department, Cincinnati
Art Museum.
(50) Ibid., p. 78 ff.
(51) Cincinnati Art Museum Donations
1881-1913, p. 137, Registration Department, Cincinnati Art Museum.
(52) Ibid., p. 149.
George T. Marsh and Company and other
firms advertised in the Illustrated
Catalogue of the Art Department.
Cincinnati Industrial Exposition 1882.
75