The Far Eastern Collection

By Rose Kerr

Over the intervening years the collections have grown and developed, but the museum still adheres to strong educational principles. Today its large and uniquely varied displays are housed in a vast, labyrinthine building that covers 12 acres of land in London.
From the beginning, Chinese and Japanese objects played a part in the museum's collecting policy. Among the first items to be purchased in 1852 were lacquer, porcelain, and copper pieces decorated in coloured enamels. Many of these early acquisitions were contemporary and were regarded as a part of an integrated collection of ornamental art with no special emphasis laid on their East Asian origins. In contrast, the first Korean acquisition was not made till 1878. More Korean ceramics, textiles, and metalwork followed in 1888 and in the early 1900s, from collections accumulated by diplomats and missionaries resident in Korea in the late 19th and very early 20th centuries. After those early years, knowledge of Korean material culture was limited in the West. Some of the great treasures of Korean art were not recognized as such; when the bronze bottle inlaid with silver wire (1) was presented to the Museum by the daughter of an American collector in 1926, it was thought to be Chinese. It is unlikely that any collector today would be unaware that the distinctive waterfowl and willow motif indicates that the bottle was made in Korea during the twelfth or thirteenth centuries.

Since 1852 the V&A has built up its Chinese, Japanese, and Korean collections through purchases, gifts, and bequests. Today it owns a priceless collection of works of art including sculpture, ceramics, furniture, textiles, paintings, metalwork, lacquerware, and carvings in many media from jade to bamboo. Shown here (2) is one of the rarest pieces from the V&A's holdings of Chinese ceramics, which are extensive and of very high quality. It is an example of Northern Song Ru ware, made for the imperial court between about 1090 and 1127; less than 100 examples of Ru ware exist worldwide. This beautiful cup stand bears a carved inscription inside the foot Shou Cheng Dian "Hall of Longevity Attained", which is the name of a hall in the Northern Song imperial palace, probably named by the Emperor Huizong (reigned 1101-1126).

Contemporary arts and craft
In addition to the acquisition of the historic material, and following principles laid down by the museum's founders, efforts are also made to collect good contemporary examples of art and craft. This summer, the V&A held an exhibition entiteled "Japanese Studio Crafts: Tradition and the Avant-Garde" (25 May-3 September, 1995). The works shown dated largely from the 1970s onwards, and more than two-thirds of the exhibits now belong to the Museum. This is because since the mid 1980s research and funds have been concentrated on a steady purchase of contemporary artworks in many media. Acquiring contemporary pieces means that a great deal of documentary information concerning technique, maker, place of manufacture etc. can also be amassed. The dry lacquer work illustrated here (3) is by Kurimoto Natsuki (born 1961), a young Kyoto-based artist who, in the late 1980s, established an important reputation for strongly-coloured mixed media works based around large-scale dry lacquer forms. This example was made by the dry lacquer technique using polystyrene for the inner core. Its title "A Priest's Crown" is indicative of Kurimoto's interest in ritual and religion.

The Far Eastern galleries
The museum's first permanent display of East Asian art was in the "Chinese court" (gallery dedicated to Chinese art) designed in 1863. Other Chinese, Japanese and Korean artefacts were shown according to media in several locations around the building. Finally in the late 1940s plans to open a "Far Eastern Gallery" containing art works from China, Japan, and Korea on the ground floor were approved. This gallery was modified several times and is now the site of the T.T. Tsui Gallery of Chinese Art. From the mid 1980s, space allocated to the East Asian collections has grown, and exhibits are now housed in a series of newly-refurbished galleries on the ground floor. Their innovative displays were all accomplished with the aid of private and corporate sponsorship; the Toshiba Gallery of Japanese Art opened in 1986, the Chinese Export Gallery (funded by Gerald Godfrey) in 1987, the T.T. Tsui Gallery of Chinese Art in 1991, and the Samsung Gallery of Korean Art in 1992. As well as new layouts and lighting the new galleries incorporate interactive video displays, objects to touch, and bilingual labelling and signage in English and Chinese. Gallery displays are supported by vigorous educational programmes that serve both Eastern and Western audiences. For example, special educational activities drew nearly 14,000 children and students into the Chinese gallery in 1994-1995, while interactive, learning events for Cantonese and Mandarin speakers have attracted new audiences.

Each new gallery is supported by a full-colour book; "Japanese Art and Design"; "Chinese Art and Design"; "Chinese Export Art and Design"; and "Korean Art and Design" are in print. Far Eastern Collection staff are engaged in a continuing programme to publish books and articles that explain the Museum's collections to a wider public. So far, books have been issued on: Chinese ceramics, dress, furniture, bronzes, snuff bottles, export watercolours, and papercuts; Japanese prints, netsuke, and contemporary crafts. In press are publications devoted to Chinese titles, Japanese carvings, Japanese dress, and Korean decorative arts of the nineteenth century. For specialists and scholars, the V&A has five further study galleries on the first and second floors that show ceramics, textiles, dress, jade, sculpture, carvings in many media, and snuffbottles. In all, more than six thousand East Asian items are on display at any one time.

Rose Kerr is the Curator for the Far Eastern Collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London