The Taishō Era – A Brief, Modern Interlude

Between the turbulent modernization of the Meiji period and the dramatic ups and downs of the Shōwa period lies a comparatively short, often overlooked period of Japanese history: the Taishō period. It lasted only fourteen years, yet within this short span a remarkable cultural transformation took place – toward greater civic freedom, urban modernity, and a new visibility of women in social life. For art and design, the Taishō period marks a distinctive, unmistakable style between traditional aesthetics and emerging Western modernity.

A New Emperor, A New Name

The Taishō period lasted from 1912 to 1926 and began with the death of the Meiji Emperor and the accession of his son, who took the reign name Taishō, meaning "great righteousness." Unlike his father, who had personally driven Japan's dramatic modernization, Emperor Taishō was severely limited by ill health and in practice exercised little political influence. This shift of power away from the imperial house toward parliament, the Reichstag, significantly shaped the political culture of the era and is commonly referred to as "Taishō democracy" – a phase of increasing democratic opening following the more authoritarian structures of the Meiji period.

Taishō Democracy

Particularly after World War I, Japan experienced a phase of relative economic prosperity and political liberalization during the Taishō period. Parliament gained increasing influence over the imperial house, political parties came more strongly to the fore, and debates about voting rights and social reforms shaped public discourse. This development, referred to as Taishō democracy, was not to continue unbroken into the following Shōwa period, but it marks an important, often underestimated step in the political development of modern Japan.

Social Change: Women, Fashion, Urban Life

A particularly striking feature of the Taishō period was the visible change in the role of women in Japanese society. Women increasingly took on responsibility for household decisions and gained a purchasing power of their own that had been unknown until then – a development clearly reflected in the advertising of the time as well as in the rapid shift from traditional kimono fashion to Western-inspired clothing. At the same time, a growing urban culture shaped the cityscape of major metropolises such as Tokyo and Ōsaka: cafés, department stores, modern architecture, and an emerging popular culture increasingly and noticeably transformed everyday life. That the traditional forms continued to exist alongside this is shown by a wedding obi in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which the institution dates to the Meiji or Taishō period: silk in plain weave with a pattern of silk and gold weft threads.

Taishō Aesthetics in Art and Design

This social spirit of departure found immediate expression in a distinctive artistic aesthetic still referred to today as "Taishō Roman" or Taishō romanticism: a fusion of traditional Japanese pictorial language with influences from European Art Nouveau and Art Deco. This style is equally evident in illustrations, advertising graphics, textile patterns, and book design of the period, and is characterized by a combination, novel for Japan, of delicate, often melancholic pictorial language with modern, geometrically inspired elements. In traditional painting and ceramic art as well, the cautious engagement with Western influences that had already begun in the Meiji period continued, without the fundamental craft traditions being abandoned. The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds, for these years, a woodblock print by Kawase Hasui (1883–1957) from 1925 – dated as "Taishō 14" – from the series "Twenty Views of Tokyo," as well as a writing box in the shape of a bamboo section in solid black lacquer.

An Abrupt End

The Taishō era ended in 1926 with the death of the emperor and the accession to the throne of his son Hirohito, who adopted the reign name Shōwa. In the following decades of the early Shōwa era, the political liberalization and cultural awakening of the Taishō era would give way to an increasingly nationalist and authoritarian development – a contrast that in retrospect often makes the comparatively short Taishō period appear as a particularly free, experimental interim phase.

The Legacy of the Taishō Era

Although the Taishō era, spanning just fourteen years, is one of the shortest epochs in modern Japanese history, it left behind a remarkably distinctive cultural legacy. The characteristic fusion of traditional Japanese aesthetics with Western modernity that emerged during this period influenced subsequent generations of artists and designers and is still appreciated today as a distinct, unmistakable style – a brief but intense chapter between two considerably longer and more consequential epochs of Japanese history.

The Great Kantō Earthquake

A defining event of the Taishō era was the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923, which devastated large parts of Tokyo and Yokohama and claimed several hundred thousand lives. The subsequent reconstruction of the capital shaped Tokyo's urban development lastingly and at the same time accelerated the already ongoing modernization of urban infrastructure. For the traditional art landscape, this catastrophe also meant a painful loss: numerous art collections, workshops, and historic buildings fell victim to the earthquake and the fires that followed, which further reinforced the conscious handling of the remaining cultural heritage in the years that followed. This experience of loss and reconstruction within an already short era shaped the collective awareness of the impermanence of cultural goods lastingly and indirectly influenced the later, heightened appreciation of traditional craftsmanship in the 20th century.

The Taishō Era in an International Context

The Taishō era coincided with the First World War and its immediate aftermath – a conflict in which Japan took part on the side of the Entente powers, but which, unlike in Europe, caused no direct fighting on Japanese soil. This relative distance from the events of the war allowed Japan to profit considerably, economically, from the increased international demand for industrial goods, while at the same time new cultural currents from Europe and the USA entered the country unimpeded. This combination of economic upturn and cultural openness largely explains why the Taishō era, despite its brevity, was able to leave behind such a distinctive cultural footprint.

Traditional arts and crafts also benefited from this phase of prosperity: growing bourgeois purchasing power enabled a broader class of buyers to acquire high-quality ceramics and painting, while at the same time new forms and decorations, often influenced by Western aesthetics, found their way into traditional workshops – a cautious but clearly perceptible change that enriched the traditional Japanese art landscape in a lasting way, without displacing its fundamental craft principles.

At densho.de you will find handcrafted Japanese art that reflects the stylistic diversity of modern Japanese art history. Discover in our selection of Japanese ceramics and painting how tradition and new departures have repeatedly combined in different ways across different eras. Anyone who explores this short era discovers an often-overlooked but especially appealing facet of Japanese art history. Precisely because of its brevity, the Taishō era is a particularly concentrated example of how quickly cultural forms of expression can change. Even though it often stands in the shadow of its longer neighboring eras, the Taishō era deserves particular attention for its cultural distinctiveness. Anyone who looks more closely into this period discovers a surprisingly modern, cosmopolitan side of Japan that still has an effect today. Few eras convey so vividly how much cultural change is possible even within a comparatively short span of time. Anyone who wants to buy a Japanese hanging scroll will also find, in our selection, art that tells the story of this short but formative period.

Sources and Literature

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Temple Zōjōji in Shiba, from the series Twenty Views of Tokyo, Kawase Hasui, Acc. No. 1997.255, metmuseum.org.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Writing Box (Suzuribako) in the Shape of a Piece of Bamboo, Acc. No. 1982.244.2a–e, metmuseum.org.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Wedding obi (sash), Acc. No. 1980.53, metmuseum.org.

Penelope Mason, revised by Donald Dinwiddie: History of Japanese Art. 2nd edition. Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River 2005.