In Japanese Export Lacquer, 1580–1850, Oliver Impey and Christiaan Jörg quote English collector William Beckford writing in April of 1781, “I fear I shall never be . . . good for anything in this world, but composing airs, building towers, forming gardens, [and] collecting old Japan” (296). Beckford’s idea of “collecting old Japan” is a reflection of the importance that the black-lacquer and gilt-decorated furnishings, caskets, and assorted decorative objects made for the European market came to occupy by the mid-eighteenth century. That the collection of these objects should command a place in this short list of a gentleman’s aspirations is testament both to the Japanese lacquerers’ skills and to the power of the Dutch trade that controlled the flow of lacquer goods from Japan to the West. In Beckford’s day Japanese lacquer had been a known rarity for more than two centuries and was still available only through a rigidly controlled and restricted trade relationship. Its cost was high, and desire for it in the great houses of Holland, France, Denmark, and England was seemingly limitless. Although we may still marvel at the refined surfaces and meticulously created imagery that adorns pieces made for the European trade, a systematic assessment of this trade and the documentation that illuminates it had yet to be fully realized prior to the publication of Impey and Jörg’s book.

The Japanese export lacquer trade active between the later sixteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries and transported by the Portuguese, Dutch, Chinese, and English has been the subject of several significant studies. In the 1941 Dutch-language work of Theo H. Lunsingh Schurleer and the 1959 English-language writing of Martha Boyer, both scholars analyzed the shipping records tied to collections of lacquer in Holland and Denmark. Their readings of Dutch and Danish documents laid the groundwork for the continued study of this important link between Europe and Japan. In his contribution to the Percival David Foundation’s eleventh colloquy in 1981, Impey (1936–2005), whose many writings on Japanese decorative arts have touched nearly every corner of the field, built on Boyer’s work with his own analyses of records of the lacquer trade. His work entitled “Japanese Export Lacquer of the 17th Century” published in the proceedings of the colloquy prefigured the format and methodological structure of the current publication, but could hardly begin to convey the richness and thorough reach that he and his co-author would achieve in this encyclopedic text.

As the authors explain in the preface, “This is not a book to read from beginning to end,” but rather is a resource for all those interested in this fascinating subject (9). This caveat aside, the introduction and first chapter on the trade in lacquer read as a compelling narrative detailing the companies, vessels, and people central to the ordering, manufacture, transport, and distribution of lacquer made for European consumption. Beginning with the Portuguese establishment of trade in the later sixteenth century, the authors detail the mechanisms that led to the exchange of goods between Japan, China, Batavia, South India, and Europe. They document the brief attempts at permanent trade with Japan on the part of the Spanish and the English at the turn of the seventeenth century, and reveal the monumental change in trade ushered in by the formation of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in 1602. In conjunction with the closing of the Japanese ports by the bakufu in 1639, the only exception being the Dutch trade colony on Deshima in Nagasaki harbor, the VOC became the sole purveyor of Japanese export lacquer through the mid-nineteenth century.

In a methodical examination of documents related to the VOC, the authors carefully explain the routes by which orders were sent to Japan for lacquered furnishings and decorative objects. They reveal the challenges faced by the Opperhoofd, or company head, at Deshima and representatives of the guilds of lacquerers who were approved to produce for the foreign market. Demands for higher prices by the makers and the constant threat of private trade undercutting the official exchange make this a fascinating study in personality and early international relations. Also, the manner by which objects were transported from Japan to ports in China, Taiwan, and the Dutch outposts at Batavia and in India is revealed through carefully considered letters and records of cargoes carried by VOC-contracted ships. From these first ports-of-call outside Japan, lacquered goods made their way back to Europe to be presented in fulfillment of specific orders or to be offered as exotic treasures on the trade-goods markets. Impey and Jörg’s presentation of this information and their weaving of stories drawn from documents of the trade, including the correspondence and daily registers of the VOC Opperhoofd in Nagasaki, create a picture that is at once rich with commercial negotiation and informative with regard to the social and cultural frictions characterizing this important trade.

In the remaining chapters of the book, Impey and Jörg explore the range of objects that were produced for the trade, along with records reflecting the trade itself and documents indicative of the reception lacquered pieces received upon their arrival in Europe. In keeping with the authors’ goals of creating a resource for information related to this trade, these chapters are not constructed to form a coherent narrative but rather serve as references and make available these raw materials for future research purposes.

In chapter 2, “The Objects,” Impey and Jörg categorize lacquers by shape. Within each shape category they then identify examples that represent styles they define both temporally and visually: Nanban, Transitional, Pictorial, Fine, Kyoto-Nagasaki, and Nagasaki. Many object types appear to have representative examples created in only one or two of these defined styles, even though the categories of object types are populated with every example of export lacquer the authors were able to document.

Of particular interest to this reader are a panel and a tabletop adorned with an aerial image of Deshima itself (217, 226). Impey and Jörg present these pieces, and hundreds of others, in full-color reproductions with textual descriptions that provide a context as well as speculation concerning the original purpose or use of the objects when they entered the trade. These particular lacquer depictions of the man-made island compound via which the objects were exported seem to be ideal examples of self-reflective image making. The trade becomes, in these works, both subject and object in a manner that is intriguing when considered both from the perspective of the lacquerer and from that of the patron. One can imagine both parties looking to the island as the symbol of the other, linked as they are through a thin line of trade.

For immediate identification and stylistic categorization these examples are extremely valuable; less clear, however, is how this resource could be used in the case of an object whose shape is unfamiliar or ill-defined. Arranged alphabetically by shape name, the curious researcher is left to riffle through the book’s pages in search of similarly shaped pieces.

Throughout chapter 2, reference is made to later chapters documenting the written records of the trade. Each object, if mentioned in a VOC memorandum, is cross-listed so that the researcher may read the document in translation to understand how the order was phrased and which other objects or object types accompanied it during transportation. This material is invaluable as it provides the evidence both of requesting lacquer from the Japanese manufacturers and of the reception these pieces had upon their arrival in Europe.

To complement this information, the authors have dedicated a portion of chapter 4, “Evidence of Reception and Use in Europe,” to visual documentation of Japanese lacquer in European paintings. Magnificent reproductions of Dutch, French, and English paintings of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries—with details showing Japanese lacquers used as interior decorations and daily use items—prove the importance of these pieces in the European context. While these are only a few of the instances in which Japanese export lacquers of this type appear in non-Japanese imagery, the presentation and accompanying narrative hints at an enlightening cross-cultural study of taste and trade that resides far from Japan but hinges on the contacts that this trade established.

In appendices the authors have collected information on VOC prices; gifts of lacquer from China and Japan brought to France by the Siamese embassy in 1686; lists of collections and sales; a rich glossary of Dutch, romanized Japanese, and other specialized terms from the lacquer trade; and an extensive bibliography of the subject. These materials, like much of the rest of the text, provide resources that will be of great value to scholars, curators, and collectors interested in the Japanese lacquer trade.

This text, completed after Impey’s death, will be his last work to share the wisdom and dedication to the field of Japanese art that he so elegantly embodied. It is fitting that this book should be a resource, documenting the surviving records of the Japan lacquer trade in a manner that promises to fuel many future studies.