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The Meiji Era – When Japan Opened Up to the World

From an isolated feudal realm to an industrial nation: the Meiji era (1868–1912) opened Japan up to the world – and the world discovered Japanese art.

Published on: Apr 22, 2026

In a nutshell

The Meiji era (1868–1912) began with the Meiji Restoration, in which Emperor Mutsuhito reclaimed actual governing power after centuries and the Tokugawa shogunate came to an end. Japan modernized rapidly during this period, following Western models. In art, the confrontation with Western oil painting (Yōga) led to the deliberate distinction of traditional painting as Nihonga. At the same time, Japanese art exports to Europe triggered what became known as Japonism, which influenced Impressionism and Art Nouveau, while many traditional craft workshops came under economic pressure due to the loss of feudal patronage.

Hardly any period in Japanese history marks as abrupt a break as the Meiji era. Within a few decades, a feudal realm that had been largely isolated for centuries transformed into a modern industrial nation operating on equal footing with the Western great powers. For Japanese art and craft, this period brought an ambivalent upheaval: on the one hand, many traditional techniques came under economic pressure, while on the other, the world outside Japan discovered Japanese aesthetics to an extent never before seen.

From Restoration to World Power

The Meiji period lasted from 1868 to 1912 and began with the so-called Meiji Restoration, in the course of which the emperor regained actual governing power after centuries of factual powerlessness, and the Tokugawa shogunate of the Edo period ended. Emperor Mutsuhito adopted the reign name Meiji, which means something like "enlightened rule." In the following decades, Japan pursued a systematic, state-led campaign to adopt and adapt Western knowledge in technology, law, science, and art. By the end of the 19th century, Japan had risen to become the most powerful nation in Asia, as shown among other things by military successes such as the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905).

The Break with Isolation

The decisive external impetus for this radical transformation was the forced opening of Japan by the USA in 1853, which marked the beginning of the end of the centuries-long Sakoku policy of the Edo period. Within a few decades, Japan adopted Western administrative structures, a modern legal system, an industrial economy, and a Western-style education system – a pace of modernization unparalleled in world history. This rapid opening affected nearly all areas of society, from clothing to architecture to fine art. Even the education system was fundamentally reformed: a comprehensive school system organized along Western lines produced, within just a few decades, one of the highest literacy rates in the world at the time, thereby creating the social foundation for the rapid industrial and cultural development that characterized the Meiji period. This close connection between education reform and economic rise is still regarded by many historians today as one of the key explanations for why Japan managed modernization so much faster and more successfully than other Asian countries of that era.

Nihonga versus Yōga: A Struggle for Cultural Identity

In art especially, the sudden confrontation with Western painting techniques and modes of expression led to an intense debate about cultural identity. Western painting styles, graphic techniques, and architectural forms increasingly found their way into Japan, embodied by the newly emerging oil painting known as Yōga. As a deliberate response to this, the term Nihonga, "Japanese picture," emerged, with which artists explicitly invoked the native painting tradition with its traditional techniques, pigments, and picture supports, consciously positioning it against imported Western painting. This debate over Nihonga versus Yōga shaped the Japanese art world for decades and exemplifies how the Meiji period balanced between radical modernization and the preservation of cultural identity. That the traditional pictorial subjects by no means disappeared in the process is evidenced by a Fuji album leaf in the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Kawanabe Kyōsai (1831–1889), created around 1887 and attributed there to the Meiji period (1868–1912).

Japonism: How Europe Discovered Japanese Art

With the opening of Japan, Japanese art objects reached Europe and the USA in large numbers for the first time – ukiyo-e woodblock prints, lacquer works, textiles, and above all ceramics and porcelain. This wave sparked a veritable enthusiasm for Japanese aesthetics in Europe, which entered art history as Japonism and had a lasting influence on, among other things, European Impressionism and Art Nouveau. For Japanese ceramics producers, for example from Arita or Kutani, this demand meant an enormous economic upturn: after a period of declining exports in the 18th century, many traditional ceramics centers experienced a second, vigorous export boom during the Meiji period.

Traditional Craftsmanship Under Pressure

The rapid industrialization and the increasing availability of Western mass-produced goods simultaneously brought many traditional Japanese craft techniques into economic distress. Numerous small, local kilns, which had previously worked under the protection of a feudal lord, lost their former security with the end of feudal rule and had to henceforth assert themselves as independent, market-driven enterprises – a upheaval that directly affected traditions such as Hagi ware or Karatsu ware and, in some regions, led to a noticeable decline in production. At the same time, out of this challenge, a new appreciation for traditional craft techniques emerged, in part only over the course of the further 20th century, which individual masters and movements such as the later Mingei movement consciously sought to revive.

A Country in Upheaval

The Meiji period thus stands as an exemplary case of a cultural dual character that shapes Japanese society to this day: the ability to adapt Western innovation with remarkable speed without completely abandoning its own cultural identity. This tension between tradition and modernity, between preservation and renewal, runs through the Japanese art history of the Meiji period and at the same time laid the foundation for the international appreciation that Japanese arts and crafts still enjoy today.

World's Fairs as a Showcase for Japanese Art

A central role in the international recognition of Japanese art during the Meiji era was played by the great world's fairs of that period, such as those in Vienna in 1873 or Paris in 1878 and 1889, at which Japan for the first time presented arts and crafts and ceramics to an international audience on a grand scale. These exhibitions sparked a veritable passion for collecting Japanese arts and crafts in Europe and the USA and contributed significantly to the spread of Japonisme. At the same time, the Japanese government deliberately produced particularly skillful showpieces, often intended for export, meant to demonstrate Japanese arts and crafts at the highest technical level – a deliberate cultural diplomacy intended to strengthen Japan's international reputation as a highly developed cultural nation. What these representative pieces looked like can be traced at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: in a pair of imperial presentation vases in cloisonné enamel by Kawade Shibatarō (1861–1921) from around 1906, with maple branches and the imperial chrysanthemum crest.

This new international attention also had repercussions on the Japanese art scene itself: young artists and craftsmen increasingly oriented themselves toward the expectations of an international market, which in many areas led to technical perfection, but in other cases also to a certain adaptation of traditional forms to Western taste – a tension between commercial success and cultural authenticity that accompanied Japanese art history well into the 20th century.

At densho.de you will find handcrafted Japanese ceramics and painting, whose traditions have outlasted the upheavals of the Meiji era. Discover in our selection of Japanese art how centuries-old craftsmanship has been preserved into the present day. Thus, the Meiji era remains to this day a key to understanding how Japanese arts and crafts became internationally known. This double movement of opening up and self-assertion remains to this day a central theme when discussing Japanese modernity. Few countries have managed such a profound social transformation in so short a time as Japan did during this remarkable era. This experience remains to this day an important point of reference when discussing how tradition and progress can be meaningfully combined. Those looking to buy a Japanese hanging scroll will find in our selection art that reflects this eventful era.