ABSTRACT
This chapter recounts the author’s recollections of how the field of Japonisme studies has developed since the late 1970s. It discusses issues such as the shift in research focus from the influence of ukiyo-e on Impressionism to the field of decorative arts and the art historical revaluation of French Salon painters and their interests in Japanese art. The chapter also discusses how the phenomenon of Japonisme overlapped with the nascent study of East Asian religions in the West by examining the travels to Japan by Henri Cernuschi and Théodore Duret, and Émile Guimet and Félix Régamey. It also proposes new interpretations regarding the incorporation of ukiyo-e prints in the work of Édouard Manet and Vincent van Gogh.
