Establishment of a Museum in Modern Japan: From the Perspective of the Influence of the South Kensington Museum

Abstract

The tripartite art policy of expositions, museums, and art schools, originating with the London Great Exhibition of 1851 and beginning in South Kensington, spread rapidly across Europe and America. It reached Japan, which was promoting industrial development, following its participation in the Vienna World’s Fair in 1873. Japanese bureaucrats and foreign advisors played pivotal roles in establishing art policies and museums. Following Machida Hisanari and Sano Tsunetami, who were involved in art administration in the early Meiji period, Ernest Fenollosa and Okakura Kakuzō were the central figures who advanced art administration in the mid-Meiji period. Ultimately their goal was the establishment of the Art Bureau. From the proposal for the Shukokan museum’s construction in 1871 to the establishment of the Imperial Museum in 1889, South Kensington’s art policy provided indispensable inspiration throughout the formation of Meiji Japan’s museums.