Scope For Money

Although much has been written about the influence of Japan on Western design movements (the Aesthetic Movement. Arts and Crafts, and Art Nouveau), far less is known of Western influence on Japan. Yet, from about 1900 to the 1910s, Japanese designers, educators, architects, and craftspeople launched a "new style" of art and craft by incorporating elements from French Art Nouveau, the Vienna Secession, and the Glasgow School into traditional Japanese arts. In a later phase, in the 1920s and '30s, Japanese artists instead drew on the ideals and philosophy of John Ruskin and William Morris to create their own response to the modern world. This utopian phase of the Japanese Arts and Crafts Movement will be explored in the next issue of Style 1900. For now, we focus on the initial blending of Western theatre with traditional craft that first …