• DOI:10.1086/652831
• Corpus ID: 156648890

Japanese Arts in America, 1895-1920, and the A. A. Vantine and Yamanaka Companies

@article{Yamamori2008JapaneseAI,
  title={Japanese Arts in America, 1895-1920, and the A. A. Vantine and Yamanaka Companies},
  author={Yumiko Yamamori},
  journal={Studies in the Decorative Arts},
  year={2008},
  volume={15},
  pages={96 - 126}
}

• Y. Yamamori
• Published 1 March 2008
• History
• Studies in the Decorative Arts

In the early twentieth century in the United States, two types of imported Japanese arts were available: one "popular," much of it provided by A. A. Vantine & Co. and the other "high," sold by Yamanaka & Co. Vantine dealt in Japanese crafts most actively between 1891 and 1920, when the firm operated Japanese branches and established an emporium called "Vantine's Oriental Store," first on Broadway and then on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Its imports consisted of a variety of afford­ able handcrafts—dishes, screens, and fans, embellished with "exotic" Japanese motifs, such as geishas, Mount Fuji, and chrysanthemums. Yamanaka came to accommodate upper middle-class female buyers, especially after the mid-1910s; nevertheless, its foremost selling point was always pricey antiques aimed at wealthy collectors and museums. Despite their importance to the American market, these two companies have been largely forgotten by historians and, if mentioned at all, are rarely discussed together. Notable exceptions are found in two works. William Hosley, in his insightful study of the "Japan Idea," wrote that Vantine "dominated the market during the boom era of the 1880s" and recognized that Vantine's position was taken by Yamanaka in the twen­ tieth century. In the other work, an interdisciplinary study of American Orientalism, Mari Yoshihara stressed the similarity of the business strat­ egies of the two companies as "shapers of Western Orientalism" that catered mainly to the female buyer. Few ledgers and inventories of the two firms have survived. Both businesses produced a number of trade catalogues, however, and ran numerous advertisements. A study of these materials and of the complex intermingling of fashion and trade, along with parallel socioeconomic developments, shows the changing nature of American taste for things Japanese in the early twentieth century, the so-called post-Japanism era.