3-046-993 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Exhibition of Arts and Manufactures at Kiyoto, Japan, 1872. 'Our well-known Special Artist in Japan, Mr. C. Wirgman, has furnished a view of the Exhibition...Kiyoto...has, till recently, been closed against foreigners, being esteemed a sacred place. But their presence is now freely tolerated...The following is our correspondent's letter... "I went in [to the Temple of Chi-ôn-in (to be pronounced 'Cheewonin'] and took a view of the first gallery, containing the armour. On the white curtain is the crest of the Tokugawa family, who were, until the last revolution, the de facto rulers of Japan...Two Japanese, in European costume, in the foreground, contrast strangely with the armour they wore only a few years ago. One is Kumagaye, an official personage, connected with the Exhibition. He has not quite hit off the present fashion, as he wears a blue flowered silk coat and waistcoat; but then he has never been out of Kiyoto. The other, who dresses with great taste, is Nishiwo, likewise one of the Commissioners for the Exhibition, and a most charming man. The rest of the gallery is filled with school girls, who, together with school boys, are taken to see the Exhibition. Thus you have Japan past, present, and future, in one sketch".' From "Illustrated London News", 1872.