Japanese craft

Room 45: Japan

Room 45 contains a wide range of treasures from Japan including swords and armour, netsuke (small carvings), wood-b…

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Japanese bronzes of the Meiji period

In 1868, following the downfall of Japan's military government, the Emperor Meiji was restored to power. Japanese a…

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Japanese crafts: arms and armour

The samurai's interest in fine armour arose from their desire to appear with as much prestige and status as they co…

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120-plate Japanese helmet, 1700-1800

This extremely fine quality Japanese helmet is of the type known as suji-bachi (ridged bowl) and is made from 120 r…

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Japanese crafts: netsuke

A netsuke ('root-fix) was attached to the end of the inro cord, stopping the weight of the inro causing it to slip …

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Japanese crafts: inro

Inro ('seal-basket’) are small decorative containers that hang from the waist. They originated at the end of the si…

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Fukusa

This Fukusa was made in the second half of the 19th century and was part of a Japanese gift cover and tradition.…

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Lacquer at the V&A

The V&A has an important and substantial collection of lacquer. This includes Asian, Islamic and European japanned …

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Japanese art & design: wabi-sabi

A complex aesthetic, wabi-sabi is a combination of rustic simplicity, freshness or quietness (wabi), together with …

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Japanese netsuke reading list

Recommended reading about Japanese Netsuke

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Japanese masks reading list

Recommended reading about Japanese Masks

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Japanese cloisonné manufacture

Japanese cloisonné manufacture, a time-consuming and detailed enamelling technique.

The V&A first acquired Japanese cloisonné enamels from the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1867. Here we present a potted history of the development of this fascinating and beautiful decorative technique in Japan.

Ukiyo-e: pictures of the Floating World

Images of everyday Japan, printed for popular consumption in the Edo period (1615-1868), they represent one of the highpoints of Japanese cultural achievement.

The Victorian vision of China and Japan

The myth of the exotic East has always been a potent one in the West, fuelling such images as Coleridge's 'stately pleasure domes'. By the time Victoria came to the throne in 1837, however, the romantic yearning to penetrate hidden worlds was being superseded by a desire to reach the apparently enormous, but hitherto untouched, markets of East Asia. With the 'opening' of China and Japan fantasies met with realities and new mythologies and stereotypes of the East were constructed.