Japanese Village, Knightsbridge

Last updated

Japanese Village in Knightsbridge, 1886 Afternoon-Tea-at-Japanese-Village-Knightsbridge-1886.jpg
Japanese Village in Knightsbridge, 1886

The Japanese Village in Knightsbridge, London, was a late Victorian era exhibition of Japanese culture which took place from January 1885 until June 1887 in Humphrey's Hall. Japanese art and culture had become extremely popular in Victorian England by the 1880s, and more than a million people visited the Village. The exhibition employed around 100 Japanese men and women in a setting built to resemble a traditional Japanese village. The exhibit burnt down in May 1885 but was rebuilt and expanded. It reopened the following December.

Contents

Background

Photo taken at the Village by W. S. Gilbert Japanese3vil.jpg
Photo taken at the Village by W. S. Gilbert

As a result of the opening up of Japan to trade with Britain in the 1850s, an English craze for all things Japanese had developed through the 1860s and 1870s, fed by the British perception of Japan as a mediaeval culture, and it greatly increased imports of Japanese art, design and decorative objects to Britain. The fad resonated particularly with devotees of the Aesthetic movement of the late nineteenth century. [2] The planned exhibition was announced in the financial section of The London and China Express on 11 January 1884; it was expected to take a team of Japanese workers seven months to build. [3]

The exhibition was a commercial venture organised by Tannaker Buhicrosan (1839–1894), [4] who had been organising travelling Japanese exhibitions and performances in Britain for several years beforehand. After performances of his Japanese Troupe, Buhicrosan often gave Japanese objects to each person who attended. He sometimes offered his entertainments to workhouses free of charge, and he was known to contribute money to disaster appeals such as the Tay Bridge disaster. He stated that the goal of the Village was to raise money for a mission, led by his British-Japanese Christian wife, Ruth Otake Buhicrosan (1851–1914), to help women in Japan. [5]

Description

The exhibition was built to resemble a traditional Japanese village, completely contained within Humphreys' Hall (which was south of Knightsbridge and east of what is now Trevor Street). [6] It employed around 100 Japanese men and women, and included segregated sleeping accommodation. [7] According to advertisements placed in the Illustrated London News :

Skilled Japanese artisans and workers (male and female) will illustrate the manners, customs, and art-industries of their country, attired in their national and picturesque costumes. Magnificently decorated and illuminated Buddhist temple. Five o’clock tea in the Japanese tea-house. Japanese Musical and other Entertainments. Every-day Life as in Japan. [8]

Poster JapaneseNativeVillageHydePark.jpg
Poster

The Village opened on 10 January 1885 by Rutherford Alcock, a diplomat who had served in Japan and had organised the Japanese stand at the 1862 International Exhibition in London. It included of a street lined with shops made of bamboo, wood and paper, some with thatched roofs, another row of smaller shops, a Buddhist temple and a garden. It was an immediate success and had more than 250,000 visitors during its early months. [6] While Gilbert and Sullivan were writing their opera The Mikado in 1885, W. S. Gilbert visited the exhibition and engaged Japanese people from the village to teach his cast aspects of Japanese behaviour and dance. [2]

London authorities were concerned about the safety of the exhibition, which was lighted at night by gas. Buhicrosan was summoned before the Metropolitan Board of Works for failure to get a safety certificate. [3] On 2 May 1885, Humphreys' Hall burnt down, and a Japanese wood carver was killed in the blaze; the fire spread to the adjoining Humphries Mansions and Sun Music Hall. [3] Buhicrosan announced that the hall and the exhibit would be rebuilt as quickly as possible. The exhibit employees were already committed to appear at the 1885 International Hygiene Exhibition in Berlin. They proceeded to fulfill the engagement. and then toured in Germany. [2] [3]

Meanwhile, the hall and the village exhibit were both reconstructed; the exhibition was greatly expanded and re-opened to the public on 8 December 1885 with "several streets of shops ... two temples and various free-standing idols, and a pool spanned by a rustic bridge". [9] Buhicrosan sold his stake in the Village in 1887 but ran other Villages and Japanese troupes around England until 1890. [3]

Closing and legacy

The exhibition continued until June 1887. By February 1887, over a million people had visited it. [1] Prominent references to the exhibition are made in the 1999 film Topsy-Turvy [10] and the 2015 novel by Natasha Pulley, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street. [11]

Notes

  1. 1 2 "Information about the Japanese exhibition, 1885-87". Archived from the original on 15 July 2009. Retrieved 9 February 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 Jones (2007), pp. 688–93
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Daniels, Vincent. "Some Thoughts on the Japanese Village at Knightsbridge", Sir Arthur Sullivan Society Magazine, No. 114, Spring 2024, pp. 21–24
  4. "Buhicrosan, Tannaker, 1839–1894", Library of Congress, accessed 19 September 2020
  5. Budden, Paul. Paper Butterflies: Unravelling the mystery of Tannaker Buhicrosan, Gatekeeper Press (2020) ISBN   978-1642377132
  6. 1 2 "Knightsbridge Green Area: Scotch Corner and the High Road", British History Online, Survey of London, vol. 45: Knightsbridge (2000), pp. 79-88
  7. McLaughlin, Joseph (20 September 2007). ""The Japanese Village" and the Metropolitan Construction of Modernity". Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net (48). doi:10.7202/017441ar via www.erudit.org.
  8. Advertisement from the Illustrated London News , 3 January 1885, quoted in McLaughlin, para 10.
  9. "Knightsbridge Green Area: Scotch Corner and the High Road: The Japanese Native Village", in Survey of London: Volume 45, Knightsbridge, ed. John Greenacombe (London, 2000), pp. 79-88, via British History Online, accessed 10 October 2020
  10. Eggert, Brian. "Topsy-Turvy", Deep Focus Review, June 29, 2019
  11. Skea, Ann. "The Watchmaker of Filigree Street", Eclectica Magazine , October/November 2015

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gilbert and Sullivan</span> Victorian-era theatrical partnership

Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) and to the works they jointly created. The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado are among the best known.

<i>The Mikado</i> 1885 comic opera by Gilbert & Sullivan

The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations. It opened on 14 March 1885, in London, where it ran at the Savoy Theatre for 672 performances, the second-longest run for any work of musical theatre and one of the longest runs of any theatre piece up to that time. By the end of 1885, it was estimated that, in Europe and America, at least 150 companies were producing the opera.

<i>Ruddigore</i> 1887 comic opera by Gilbert & Sullivan

Ruddigore; or, The Witch's Curse, originally called Ruddygore, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy Operas and the tenth of fourteen comic operas written together by Gilbert and Sullivan. It was first performed by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company at the Savoy Theatre in London on 22 January 1887.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knightsbridge</span> District in central London, England

Knightsbridge is a residential and retail district in central London, south of Hyde Park. It is identified in the London Plan as one of two international retail centres in London, alongside the West End. Knightsbridge is also the name of the roadway which runs near the south side of Hyde Park from Hyde Park Corner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Grossmith</span> English actor, singer, composer and writer (1847–1912)

George Grossmith was an English comedian, writer, composer, actor, and singer. His performing career spanned more than four decades. As a writer and composer, he created 18 comic operas, nearly 100 musical sketches, some 600 songs and piano pieces, three books and both serious and comic pieces for newspapers and magazines.

<i>Topsy-Turvy</i> 1999 British film by Mike Leigh

Topsy-Turvy is a 1999 British musical period drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh, starring Jim Broadbent as W. S. Gilbert and Allan Corduner as Sir Arthur Sullivan, along with Timothy Spall, Lesley Manville and Ron Cook. The story concerns the 15-month period in 1884 and 1885 leading up to the premiere of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado. The film focuses on the creative conflict between playwright and composer, and their decision to continue their partnership, which led to their creation of several more Savoy operas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred Cellier</span> 19th-century English composer and conductor

Alfred Cellier was an English composer, orchestrator and conductor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prince's Club</span>

The Prince's Club was a socially exclusive gentlemen's multisports club in London, England. The original 'Prince's Club' was founded in 1853 in Chelsea by George and James Prince and its main sports were rackets and real tennis. Cricket, croquet and lawn tennis were also played. After most of its ground was lost to building developments it closed in 1887. Its successor, the 'New Prince's Club', located in Knightsbridge, opened in 1888 and kept its focus on rackets and real tennis, but no longer had any outdoor sports. In 1896 the Prince's Skating Club was opened. The Prince's Club was in operation until the 1940s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Temple (bass-baritone)</span> English opera singer, actor and stage director

Richard Barker Cobb Temple was an English opera singer, actor and stage director, best known for his performances in the bass-baritone roles in the famous series of Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leonora Braham</span> English singer and actress (1853–1931)

Leonora Braham was an English opera singer and actress primarily known as the creator of principal soprano roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Durward Lely</span> Scottish opera singer and actor (1852–1944)

Durward Lely was a Scottish opera singer and actor. Although he had an extensive opera, concert and acting career, he is primarily remembered as the creator of five tenor roles in Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operas, including Nanki-Poo in The Mikado, for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">W. S. Gilbert</span> English dramatist, poet and illustrator (1836–1911)

Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operas. The most famous of these include H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and one of the most frequently performed works in the history of musical theatre, The Mikado. The popularity of these works was supported for over a century by year-round performances of them, in Britain and abroad, by the repertory company that Gilbert, Sullivan and their producer Richard D'Oyly Carte founded, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. These Savoy operas are still frequently performed in the English-speaking world and beyond.

<i>The Princess</i> (W. S. Gilbert play) Farce by W. S. Gilbert in blank verse

The Princess is a blank verse farcical play, in five scenes with music, by W. S. Gilbert which adapts and parodies Alfred Lord Tennyson's humorous 1847 narrative poem, The Princess. It was first produced at the Olympic Theatre in London on 8 January 1870.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sybil Grey</span> British singer and actress (1860–1939)

Ellen Sophia Taylor, known professionally as Sybil Grey, was a British singer and actress during the Victorian era best known for creating a series of minor roles in productions by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, including roles in several of the famous Gilbert and Sullivan operas, from 1880 to 1888. Afterwards, she went on to a long West End theatre career, appearing in both musical theatre and plays.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John D'Auban</span> English dancer, choreographer and actor

Frederick John D'Auban was an English dancer, choreographer and actor of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Famous during his lifetime as the ballet-master at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, he is best remembered as the choreographer of many of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frederick Bovill</span> British opera singer

Frederick Bovill was an operatic baritone of the late Victorian era. In his short career, he created the roles of Pish-Tush in Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera hit The Mikado (1885) and the Squire in Sullivan's romantic opera Ivanhoe (1891). From 1887 to 1889 Bovill toured the British provinces with J. W. Turner's English Opera Company

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Llewellyn Cadwaladr</span> Welsh operatic tenor

Llewellyn "Lyn" Cadwaladr was a Welsh operatic tenor who originated roles in, or starred in early tours of, comic operas and operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan, Solomon and Stephens, Robert Planquette and others in the Victorian era, often in America for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. He was touring as Ralph in H.M.S. Pinafore when he was asked to create the role of Frederic in the ad hoc 1879 British copyright performance of The Pirates of Penzance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rudolph Lewis (bass-baritone)</span>

Rudolph Lewis was a bass-baritone known for creating several small roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas including Go-To in The Mikado (1885) and Old Adam Goodheart in Ruddigore (1887).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Barker (stage manager)</span> Actor and stage manager, 1834-1903

Henry de Grey Warter, better known under the stage name Richard Barker, was a British actor, stage manager and stage director. He stage managed many of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operas and other productions of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, and directed some of them, and in the 1890s directed musicals in New York as well as London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tannaker Buhicrosan</span> Dutch entertainment promoter

Tannaker Buhicrosan (タナカー・ブヒクロサン), christened Frederik Eduard Marie Martinus Blekman, and also known as Furederikku Burekkuman, was a Dutch translator and entertainment promoter mostly in Japan and Britain, who is best remembered for operating the Japanese Village exhibition erected in Knightsbridge from 1885 to 1887.

References

51°30′05″N0°09′50″W / 51.5015°N 0.1639°W / 51.5015; -0.1639