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Paper short abstract

This paper examines the shared language of Nordic and Japanese ceramics around 1900, arguing that transcultural exchange with the “Other” enabled both regions to redefine modern national craft identities rather than merely imitate foreign styles.

Paper long abstract

This paper explores the emergence of a shared stylistic language in Art Nouveau ceramics produced in the Nordic countries and Japan between c. 1890 and 1920, focusing on transcultural exchange as a formative force in modern aesthetics and national craft identities. Nordic ceramic centres such as Rörstrand, Gustavsberg, Royal Copenhagen, Bing & Grøndahl, Porsgrund, and Egersund developed distinctive Art Nouveau idioms that combined international stylistic trends with Japonisme and motifs drawn from local nature. Japanese ceramics circulating in Northern Europe were valued for their materiality, surface treatments, and organic ornament, and played a significant role in shaping modern Nordic design languages.

At the same time, Japanese ceramics of the early twentieth century reveal an intensified engagement with Western artistic, technical, and institutional paradigms. Japanese potters increasingly travelled to Europe, engaged with contemporary European ceramicists, and gained access to Western art and design publications such as The Studio, Jugend, and L’Art Moderne. Moreover, newly established Japanese craft schools and museums deliberately assembled “sample collections” of Western ceramics for educational purposes, including numerous Nordic examples from the studios and factories listed above. These collections incorporated contemporary European works alongside Japanese traditional earthenware and porcelain. As a result, Japanese ceramic production of this period—by artists such as Miyagawa Kōzan, Itaya Hazan, the Nishiura Ceramic Company, the Fukagawa Company, Kinkōzan Sōbei, and Tominaga Genroku—aligned closely with international Art Nouveau aesthetics.

Rather than framing these developments in terms of bidirectional yet unilateral influences (Japan → West, West → Japan), this paper approaches them through the lens of transculturation, and interprets them as a long-lasting dialogue. It asks whether direct engagement with the visual culture of the “Other” primarily shaped modern craft languages, or whether such encounters enabled artists and institutions to rethink, re-evaluate, and rearticulate their own traditional cultural “essences” through renewed attention to material, technique, and ornament. By examining ceramics as a medium situated between art, craft, and industry, the paper argues that transcultural exchange was instrumental in redefining modern national art in Japan, while simultaneously informing parallel developments in Northern Europe.