Renaissance Studies Vol. 0 No. 0 DOI: 10.1111/rest.

12592

Circulating art and visual hybridity: cross-cultural

exchanges between Portugal, Japan, and Spain

Clement Onn

From the late fifteenth century, advances in ship technology and knowledge
of sea routes opened up new lines of communication among Europe, Asia,
Africa, and the Americas, transforming the world trading system. The period
between 1500 and about 1800 is often viewed as a new chapter of global his-
tory. Key features of this period are the rapid expansion of maritime trade,
and the resulting increase in cultural encounters in major trading centres.
Movement across the seas was fundamental; interlocking chains of port cities
became dissemination points for the circulation of people, goods, and ideas.1
Journeys along trading networks fostered buying and collecting, whether
souvenirs, scientific specimens, local commodities, or manufactured goods
for export. Artistic production centres were established in port cities such as
Goa, Macau, Manila, and Nagasaki to meet the demand and commissions
from both local and foreign patrons. These cities were under the control of
Portugal and Spain during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Many
objects produced for these markets can be considered as hybrid designs.
Hybrid, or cross-cultural, art can be defined in several ways. It can be as simple
as an artist using motifs and styles from a foreign culture in order to produce
new work. Whether this process is called copying, borrowing, emulation,
acculturation, or appropriation is immaterial.2 More profound developments
occur through the exchange of influences in many directions, facilitated by
networks of trade, migration, pilgrimage, and diplomacy.
The concept of hybrid art, however, often lies outside academic art history,
which has tended to concentrate on pinpointing where art was produced and

1 
Frank Broeze’s insights on port cities around the Indian Ocean has provided interesting case studies
which individually and collectively lead to a better understanding of the development, functioning and the
historical significance of port cities throughout Asia and the world. Frank Broeze (ed.), Brides of the Sea: Port
Cities of Asia from the 16th–20th Centuries (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1989). Frank Broeze (ed.),
Gateways of Asia: Port Cities in the 13th–20th centuries (London: Kegan Paul International, 1997).
2 
On ‘hybridity’ see Carolyn Dean and Dana Leibsohn, ‘Hybridity and its Discontents: Considering Visual
Culture in Colonial Spanish America’, Colonial Latin American Review, 12, (2003), 5–35.

© 2019 The Society for Renaissance Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
2 Clement Onn
3
consumed. In this traditional model, an artist (or workshop) works for a
patron or for specifically intended audiences, who are assumed to share cer-
tain values. The context and meanings of a work of art would therefore be
understood in reference to this ideal audience. This understanding of the art
object predominates not only in the Western tradition, but also in major Asian
cultures, such as China, India, and Iran.4 Such a restricted notion of artistic
significance, however, is of little use in understanding hybrid art.5 This art that
fuses multiple influences, or is made in one place for distant patrons, can be
misunderstood, forgotten, or misinterpreted when using traditional art-
historical modes of thinking.6
In the sixteenth century, Japan became part of a remarkable global network
and encountered Europe mainly through the actions of Portuguese and other
Catholic missionaries. The country was drawn into a wide network of com-
merce, politics, religion, and culture. Trade with Portugal introduced a variety
of exotic elements into Japan, including animals and plants, guns and
­gunpowder, new vocabulary, and even culinary techniques.7 Recently, new
attention has focused on the role of Spanish traders and missionaries in Japan,
and the exchange of goods along the routes that connected Japan with the
Philippines and Spanish America.8
Cultural influences from the Iberian Peninsula, via the Portuguese and
Spanish visitors, were significant in Japan in the late sixteenth and early seven-
teenth century, and artistic production flourished as a result. Due to its geo-
graphical location, Japan was one of few places in Asia where both Portuguese
and Spanish traders and missionaries were active at the same time. Portugal,
which was early to make its way into Asia, set up a network of key trading bases
in Goa, Cochin, Colombo, Malacca, and Macau, connecting Asia and Europe
along the route of the Indian Ocean. Many religious orders were responsible
for commissioning works of art (devotional objects) and architecture
(churches) during their missions across Asia. A Painting School (Seminário de
Pintura) was established by the Jesuits in Kumamoto, Kyushu, in approxi-
mately 1590, mainly to educate and encourage students on Catholic

3 
For further discussion, see Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, ‘Introduction: Reintroducing Circulations:
Historiography and the project of Global Art History’ in Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann et al. (eds.), Circulations
in the Global History of Art (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2015), 1–22.
4 
Alan Chong (ed.), ‘Introduction: Crossing Borders in the Arts of Asia’ in Devotion & Desire: Cross-Cultural
Art in Asia (Singapore: Asian Civilisations Museum, 2013), 9.
5 
DaCosta Kaufmann has suggested that the European renaissance needs to be contextualised broadly
including, for example, Mughal India, and Ming and Qing China. For further discussion, see Thomas DaCosta
Kaufmann, ‘Reflections on World Art History’ in DaCosta Kaufmann, Circulations, 23–8.
6 
See Chong, ‘Introduction’ in Chong, Devotion & Desire, 10.
7 
See Pedro Moura Carvalho, ‘The circulation of European and Asian works of art in Japan, circa 1600’, in
Victoria Weston (ed.), Portugal, Jesuits, and Japan: Spiritual Beliefs and Earthly Goods (Boston: McMullen Museum
of Art, Boston College, 2013), 37–43.
8 
Ana Trujillo Dennis et al. (eds.), Lacas Namban: Huellas de Japón en España: IV centenario de la embajada
Keichō (Madrid: Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas, 2013).
 Circulating art and visual hybridity 3
catechism, but also to produce works of art based on traditional European
Christian imagery.9
The Indian Ocean was not the only route connecting Europe and East Asia.
The Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés (1485–1547) conquered the Aztec
Empire of Mexico in 1521. In the same year, Ferdinand Magellan (1480–1521)
and his fleet, with Spanish royal court’s patronage, crossed the Pacific Ocean
to circumnavigate the world, landing for some time in the Philippines. Several
more Spanish expeditions followed and the Spanish went on to occupy Manila
in 1571, thereby securing a trading base in Asia. Regular service of trading
ships, which came to be known as Manila Galleons, commenced between
Manila and Acapulco, on the Pacific coast of colonial Mexico.
Japan, and many of its port denizens who interacted with the Europeans,
were agents in this cultural exchange. Although it lasted less than a century,
its impact within Japan and along the network of Portuguese- and Spanish-
controlled port cities in Asia, and across Europe and the Americas, is evident
in the artistic goods produced. The analysis of artistic production that emerged
from the exchanges of Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish artistic traditions
has been largely studied under the narrative of European expansion. However,
the interaction between this tripartite relationship tends to neglect or de-
emphasise the influence of other artistic production centres in Asia along the
Portuguese and Spanish networks.10 Pinpointing the origins of some hybrid
objects proven to be problematic and archival documentation records are not
always precise. This article examines on the circulation and visual hybridity in
works of art (looking at ivory and lacquerware) produced in Japan and other
major Asian port cities under the control of Portugal and Spain. For example,
many objects from India brought by the Portuguese into Japan were already
in hybrid forms. These objects played its part in influencing Japanese local
production. The impact of Japanese art exported to Europe and colonial
Mexico further illustrates the complex circulation of artists and craftsmen,
goods and ideas. These points demonstrate that artistic and cultural exchanges
are not one-directional transmission but rather a far more complicated pro-
cess of hybridization.

9 
Gauvin A. Bailey, Art on the Jesuit Missions in Asia and Latin America, 1542–1773 (Toronto: University of
Toronto Press, 1999), 52–81; Alexandra Curvelo, ‘Nanban Art: What’s past is prologue’, in Victoria Weston
(ed.), Portugal, Jesuits, and Japan: Spiritual Beliefs and Earthly Goods (Boston: McMullen Museum of Art, Boston
College, 2013), 71–8; Clement Onn, ‘Christianity in Japan 1549–1639’, in Alan Chong (ed.), Christianity in Asia:
Sacred Art and Visual Splendour (Singapore: Asian Civilisations Museum, 2016), 170–83.
10 
Leonard Blussé’s work on Batavia (Jakarta), Canton (Guangzhou), and Nagasaki served as a model
framework for the present article. He did not study these port cities in isolation or as key destinations but as
nodes of the global trading network under the scope of the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische
Compagnie or VOC) and China’s overseas interactions in the eighteenth century. The exchanges between the
three port cities, along with other neighbouring port cities such Ayutthaya, Manila, and Pusan (Busan) were
also examined. Leonard Blussé, Visible Cities: Canton, Nagasaki, and Batavia and the Coming of the Americans
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008).
4 Clement Onn
CIRCULATION OF FOREIGN GOODS VIA THE O ESTADO DA ÍNDIA INTO JAPAN

O Estado da ĺndia is a term coined in the mid-sixteenth century, referring to a

group of territories, under Portuguese authority that stretched from the
Cape of Good Hope to the Japanese archipelago, covering almost half the
globe. In Japanese art history, the term namban (or nanban) refers to works of
art that depict Europeans – mainly Portuguese, Spanish, and Italians – who
arrived in Japan, or the works of art produced as a result of these encounters,
including Christian subjects painted by Japanese artists, European works
brought by missionaries and merchants, and objects with European shapes
and Japanese-style decoration. European visitors to Japan in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries were called namban-jin, literally ‘southern barbar-
ians’. The word namban comes from a term used by the Chinese to describe
foreigners from lands south of China.11
A number of Japanese folding screens that depict namban-jin survive from
the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1573–1615) and the beginning of the Edo
period (1615–1868).12 Usually made in pairs, the screens commonly depict
the annual arrival of a vessel from Macau into Japan. In the early years of
trade between the Portugal and Japan, ships from Macau docked at various
ports in Kyushu, including Funai, Hirado, Kuchinotsu, and Yokoseura, but
from 1571 onward Nagasaki became the official port for Portuguese ships;
and only in exceptional circumstances would a Portuguese ship be allowed
to dock in another port.13 The artistic composition of the screens comes in
a few variations. Typically the left shows a large vessel departing from a for-
eign land, then the right screen shows it arriving in Japan. Often Jesuit mis-
sionaries approach the vessel, or receive a group of finely dressed Portuguese
men.
The pair of folding screens (Fig. 1) reportedly found in Sakai, Osaka, in
1961, is an excellent example of the genre.14 One screen shows the arrival of
a Portuguese vessel laden with a vast range of goods: chairs, textiles, jars,
boxes, even exotic animals. These goods are being offloaded onto small boats
by the crew. The scene seems to have been painted by someone who had
observed the arrival of the ship. The Portuguese give instructions to the crew
offloading goods in covered boxes and cages with exotic animals. The large
stoneware jars are probably from Martaban, on the west coast of Burma

11 
On Japanese folding screens see for example Alexandra Curvelo, Nanban Folding Screen: Masterpieces
Japan–Portugal XVIIth Century (Paris: Chandeigne, 2015).
12 
Over 91 namban folding screens have been recently catalogued, see Mitsuru Sakamoto et al., Namban
byōbu shūsei. Catalogue Raisonné of the Namban Screens (Tokyo: Chuokoron Bijutsu Shuppan, 2008).
13 
Michael Cooper, Rodrigues the Interpreter: An Early Jesuit in Japan and China (New York: Weatherhill, 1974),
35.
14 
I am grateful for the assistance of Takako Yano, director of the Namban Bunkakan, Osaka, for providing
me with images of this pair of folding screens. Yoshiro Kitamura, Namban Bunkakan Osaka (Osaka: Namban
Bunkakan, 2009), 56.
 Circulating art and visual hybridity 5

Fig. 1  Important Cultural Property: Pair of folding screens: Arrival of a European trading ship
in Japan. School of Kanō Mitsunobu. Japan, late sixteenth or early seventeenth century,
watercolour on paper, silk, wood, Osaka, Namban Bunkakan (© Namban Bunkakan, Osaka)

(Myanmar); the Iberian earthenware probably held wine or olive oil.15 Rolls
of fabric, probably Chinese silks, but possibly Indian cottons, are also depicted.
The painter captured the diversity of the entourage, which includes not just
Portuguese traders, but a crew of Africans, Indians, and possibly Arabs and
Southeast Asians.16 The captain is usually identifiable by attributes of author-
ity – here he is seated in Chinese-style chair.
The companion screen depicts the crew transporting goods into town,
where they are received by Jesuit missionaries (in black coats) and Portuguese

15 
For more details see, Yohei Kawaguchi, ‘The Newly Found Olive Jars in Japan and Their Historical
Significance’, Sokendai Review of Cultural and Social Studies, 7 (2011), 123–32.
16 
Mitsuru Sakamoto, ‘Namban: its richness and ambiguity’, in Exh. Sezon Bijutsukan et al. (eds.),
Porutogaru to namban bunka: Via Orientalis (Nagano: Nihon Housou Kyoukai, 1993), 235.
6 Clement Onn
traders. Here we see the off-loaded goods: covered boxes, rolls of fabric and
animal hide, a peacock locked in a cage, a goat, foreign horses, and pet dogs,
probably of Mediterranean origin.17 On the right side, a boar stands beside a
Portuguese trader. Boars and hogs are rarely seen in Japanese folding screens.
Only a few depict these animals, which seems to suggest the commotion of
Japanese street life, where, as in contemporary European cities, wandering
animals like dogs and feral boars were probably scavengers.18 The chaotic,
multicultural scenes on these screens brilliantly illuminate the context within
which the production of artistic hybridity occurred.
This screen also has several Christian elements. Christianity in Japan in this
period was part of a fascinating symbiosis of trade and evangelism. In the back-
ground a Japanese man is seeking blessing from a Franciscan friar (in brown
habit). People pray and make the sign of the cross in a Japanese-style church.
In the middle of the screen, we see a Japanese Christian and a Jesuit priest in
conversation over an open window. Because they are depicted in two different
spaces separated by a wall, the scene perhaps suggests that there is a confes-
sion taking place. On the left, there is a room where students are studying the
catechism. Jesuits and Franciscans can be clearly differentiated by their hab-
its.19 The painter thus seems to have had some knowledge of Christian prac-
tice and could distinguish between different religious orders. Annual reports
by the Jesuits reveal that many goods were required for the mission in Japan.
These were either meant as gifts for local lords or commodities for the Jesuit
mission.20 These goods could all be sourced from Macau, a major cosmopoli-
tan centre at the time. Goa, Malacca, and Macau were key Portuguese trading
centres where international and inter-regional traders exchanged their goods.
A large ceremonial parasol (Fig. 2) now in the Twenty-Six Martyrs Museum
in Nagasaki is similar to the ones commonly seen in Japanese folding screens
depicting foreigners. The parasol was constructed with bamboo and silk
coated with gilded lacquer. The techniques suggest it was probably made in
Macau, or perhaps Guangzhou or somewhere else in China.21 The gold deco-
ration on the outside surface depicts a series of Chinese motifs. The inner
band is decorated with four small cranes flying among stylised clouds. The

17 
Rory Browne, ‘Priests, Pachyderms, and Portuguese: Animals Exchange in the Age of Exploration’ in
Portugal, Jesuits, and Japan: Spiritual Beliefs and Earthly Goods (Boston: McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College,
2013), 61–70.
18 
See Browne, Priests, Pachyderm, and Portuguese, 68. I am grateful to Laura Fernández-González for bring-
ing the Rua Nova dos Mercadores paintings’ to my attention, see Annemarie Jordan Gschwend and K. J. P. Lowe
(ed.), The Global City: On the Streets of Renaissance Lisbon (London: Paul Holberton, 2015).
19 
See Ignatia Rumiko Kataoka, ‘The adaptation of the Christian liturgy and sacraments to Japanese culture
during the Christian era in Japan’ in M. Antoni J. Üçerler (ed.), Christianity and Cultures: Japan and China in
Comparison, 1543–1644, (Rome: Institutum historicum Societatis Iesu, 2009), 113–25.
20 
Letter of Luis Fróis to Alessandro Valignano, August 10, 1577, quoted from Alessandro Valignano,
Sumario de las Coasa de Japon, 1583; Adiciones del Sumario de Japon, 1592, ed. José Luis Alvarez-Taladriz, Vol. I
(Tokyo, 1954), 52–5.
21 
On the parasol and its attribution, see Moura Carvalho, The circulation, 39.
 Circulating art and visual hybridity 7

Fig. 2  Ceremonial parasol. Probably Macau or China, seventeenth century, lacquered silk,
bamboo, metal, Nagasaki, Twenty-Six Martyrs Museum (© Twenty-Six Martyrs Museum,
Nagasaki)
8 Clement Onn
decoration on the middle band shows small birds and squirrels encircling a
continuous scrolling vine with bunches of grapes. The outermost band has
mountainous landscapes and an assortment of Chinese architecture, includ-
ing towers, fortresses, and bridges. Figures appears in the landscapes; some
seem to be hunting while others wear military armour in a ceremonial march.
One of the soldiers carries a shield decorated with a cross. Another soldier’s
shield shows a crab carrying a cross (Fig. 2), which is a direct reference to one
of the miracles of St Francis Xavier (1506–1552).
The shape and monumental size of the parasol conform to those depicted
in folding screens. An important figure canopied under a parasol is often seen
in Indian and Chinese art, and is an ancient symbol of royalty. The Portuguese
also adopted this tradition in Asia. In the folding screen discussed above (Fig. 1),
the figure under the parasol is obviously a person of authority, probably the
captain.
Nagasaki, the main port of call for the Portuguese and the seat of Jesuit activity,
was where a vogue for namban began.22 In Nagasaki, many regional lords, includ-
ing Konishi Yukinaga (1555–1600) and Arima Harunobu (1567–1612), had con-
verted to Christianity, and conversions of the people in their lands quickly
followed. Conversion of leaders aided the spread of Christianity, but there was
also considerable interest in European culture generally. Some Japanese who did
not convert to Christianity began to imitate the Portuguese, adopting elements
of their diet, clothing, and furnishings into their own lives, and incorporating the
use of some Portuguese words into their language.23 Father Francesco Pasio
(1554–1612) writing of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the Chancellor of Japan, provides
evidence that some Japanese took to Portuguese fashion and Christian objects
without adopting the religion. He explained that Toyotomi:

has a great liking for Portuguese clothing, and the members of his retinue, in
emulation, are often attired in the Portuguese style. The same is true even of
those daimyo who are not Christian. They wear rosaries of driftwood on their
breast, hang a crucifix from the shoulder or waist, and sometimes even hold a
handkerchief. Some, who are especially kindly disposed, have memorized the
Our Father and Hail Mary, and recite them as they walk in the streets. This is
not done in ridicule of the Christians, but simply to show off their familiarity
with the latest fashion, or because they think it good and effective in bringing
success in daily life…24

22 
‘Namban vogue’ was used by Yoshimoto Okamoto in his discussion on the development of namban culture
in Nagasaki; see Yoshimoto Okamoto, The Namban Art of Japan (New York: Heibonsha Survey of Japanese Art,
1972), 68–78.
23 
João Rodrigues, SJ mentioned that many Japanese officials in Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s court were wearing
Portuguese costumes. He also commented that the tailors in Nagasaki had good business in making Portuguese
attire for the locals, and some moved to the capital in Kyoto where they could supply the demands of the court.
See Cooper, Rodrigues the Interpreter, 104.
24 
Maria Conte-Helm, The Japanese and Europe: Economic and Cultural Encounters (London: Bloomsbury
Academic, 2013), 2–3.
 Circulating art and visual hybridity 9
The folding screens depicting Europeans in Japan are excellent illustrations
of visual hybridity. We know through letters of the Jesuits that the Japanese
were curious about Europe and the Christian faith. This is captured on the
screen described above, where we see local people following Catholic prac-
tices. On the other hand, the Portuguese adopting Asian traditions – the use
of parasols and Chinese chairs – is also clearly depicted, and perhaps some
of the surviving objects, for example the parasol, also suggest the hybrid na-
ture of objects that circulated in the major Asian port cities. The artistic and
cultural exchanges between Portugal, Japan, and Spain are encapsulated in
this genre.

HYBRID ART AND THE PROBLEM OF IDENTIFYING THE ORIGINS OF CERTAIN

TYPES OF OBJECTS

In recent years, there has been a lot of interest in examining the dynamics
of artistic and cultural exchanges, and exploring visual and spatial hybrid-
ity between Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas, in scholarly publica-
tions25 and exhibitions.26 Many of these seminal works focus on collections
of royal and aristocratic families in Europe. Many treasure rooms are per-
ceived as hybrid spaces because of their modes of decoration, combining
elements from many cultures. For example, the royal collections of Manuel
I, King of Portugal (reigned 1497–1521) and Catherine of Austria, Queen of
Portugal (tenure 1525–57), are detailed in extensive inventory records that
still survive. The inventories often indicate production centres and, if not,
other provenance for the objects. Manuel I stored his collection at the
Santos Palace in Lisbon, and a 1505 inventory suggests that it contained his
personal armoury, Flemish tapestries, and a collection of Asian works (in-
cluding lacquers) and Chinese Ming porcelain. Some of these treasures
were on display in 1497, and were possibly inherited from previous
Portuguese kings.27 Catherine’s 1528 inventory mentions of ‘a large basket
woven from pieces of mother-of-pearl from China’, and in her 1545 inven-
tory records her ‘first mother-of-pearl casket from Gujarat (used to store

25 
See for example: Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, Towards a Geography of Art (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2004); Peter Davidson, The Universal Baroque (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007); Michael
North (ed.), Artistic and Cultural Exchanges between Europe and Asia, 1400–1900 (Farnham: Ashgate, 2010); and
Geoffrey Gunn, History Without Borders: The Making of an Asian World Region, 1000–1800 (Hong Kong: Hong
Kong University Press, 2011).
26 
See for example: Exotica: The Portuguese Discoveries and the Renaissance Kunstkammer (Lisbon: Exh. Calouste
Gulbenkian Foundation, 2001–2); Encounters: The Meeting of Asia and Europe 1500–1800 (London: Exh. Victoria
& Albert Museum, 2004); Encompassing the Globe: Portugal and the World in the 16th and 17th Centuries (Washington:
Exh. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 2007); Made in the Americas: The New World Discovers Asia (Boston: Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston, 2015–16); The Global City: Lisbon in the Renaissance (Lisbon: Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga,
2017).
27 
Annemarie Jordan Gschwend and Kate Lowe (eds.), A Cidade Global: Lisboa no Renascimento. The Global
City: Lisbon in the Renaissance (Lisbon: Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, 2017), 246–49.
10 Clement Onn
jewellery) and some tortoiseshell pieces, such as casket with silver mounts’.28
In general, however, the existence or survival of detailed documentation
records is rare.
Consistency of detailed documentation across different generations in the
royal court or aristocratic family is also a challenge. We cannot assume the
same archival documentation was carried out for other European collec-
tions. Even if it exists, most records tend not to distinguish objects which
come from different parts of Asia, or they are generally classified as either
‘Indian’ or ‘Chinese’, without explicit reference to the place of origin and
manufacture. The Japanese objects that once belonged to the Medici family
and are still in the Palazzo Pitti collection reflect the family’s interest in
Asia.29 However, the inventory records do not give precise origins of these
objects.30
It is not often mentioned but crucial to emphasise that when Japan started
to trade with the Portuguese, many objects brought into Japan were already
‘hybrid’ forms. The Japanese lacquered objects made for export produced
between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in forms such as caskets,
chests with domed lids, writing cabinets with fall-fronts, host boxes, shrines,
and lecterns, were made based on European models. Similar objects produced,
via the influence of the Portuguese and Spanish traders, in Goa, Gujarat, and
Manila, were also hybrid forms, and these may have been brought to Japan,
where in turn they influenced local production. All these objects produced
and traded in the Iberian trading networks in Asia can perhaps be addressed
as intrinsically hybrid in their production, as they have gone through a pro-
cess of acculturation.
Ivories, ebony furniture, and, to a certain extent, silver filigree parapherna-
lia are problematic when one attempts to identify their origins or production
centres.31 Quite often, identifying the specific location or region where some-
thing was made is based purely on conjecture, yet these conclusions have
often been accepted as fact. The only realistic approach is to accept the ambi-
guity of origins until solid evidence emerges. And one must accept that pre-
cise provenance might very well remain unknown.

28 
For Catarina of Austria’s inventories see, Annemarie Jordan Gschwend, ‘Verdadero padre y señor:
Catalina de Austria, reina de Portugal’ in Fernando Checa Cremades (ed.), Los inventarios de Carlos V y la familia
imperial. The inventories of Charles V and the Imperial Family, vol 3 (Madrid: Fernando Villaverde Ediciones, 2010),
2983–3166; cited in Hugo Miguel Crespo, Jóias da Carreira da ĺndia. Jewels from the India Run (Lisbon: Museu do
Oriente, 2015), 19.
29 
The interest of Asian works of art, particularly Chinese porcelain and silk textiles, had influenced Italian
Renaissance artistic and technological creations under the early Medici dukes (c. 1537–87). See Irene Backus,
Asia Materialised: Perception of China in Renaissance Florence (PhD diss.: University of Chicago, 2014).
30 
Francesco Morena (ed.), Di Linea e di Colore. Line and Colour (Florence: Sillabe, 2012), 13.
31 
Peter Lee and Alan Chong, ‘Mixing up things and People in Asia’s Port Cities’ in Richard Lingner and
Clement Onn (eds.), Port Cities: Multicultural Emporiums of Asia, 1500–1900, (Singapore: Asian Civilisations
Museum, 2016), 39–40.
 Circulating art and visual hybridity 11
European traders wanted to meet demand for certain types of objects, and
they had little regard for where or by whom they were made. For example, the
insatiable global market for high-quality porcelain led the Portuguese and
the Dutch to Japanese kilns when the Chinese tightened the export market in
the middle of the seventeenth century.32 And the demand for Christian ivory
figures led to the flourishing of artistic workshops producing these pieces
across Asia.33

CHRISTIAN IVORY FIGURES

Ivory sculptures are perhaps the most significant contribution Asia made to
Christian art.34 Prized around the world, these delicate works were carved in
India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), China, the Philippines, and perhaps also in
Thailand and Japan, as well as others centres yet to be identified. Although
there is some consensus regarding ivories from Goa and Sri Lanka, much is
still unclear, for there is little documentary evidence.35 More challenging are
the ivory carvings assigned to Chinese carvers of the sixteenth and seven-
teenth centuries. The presence of stylised Chinese clouds and ‘Asian-looking’
eyes among other features have been the basis of attributions. There are as-
sumptions that the ivories found in in Spain and Mexico must have been
carved by Chinese artists living in the Philippines, and also those with a
Portuguese provenance came from Macau. But without evidence, can we be
sure these assumptions are accurate?
In 1590, the archbishop of Manila, Domingo do Salazar (1512–1594),
described the work of Chinese artists in Manila:

…and the infant Jesus figures in ivory that I have seen, it seems to me that no
one could make anything more perfect, as everyone who has seen them can
attest. They are providing churches with the images that they make, which they
have badly needed; and seeing their ability to replicate images from Spain, we

32 
The European export of Japanese porcelain thrived from 1659 to about 1745 and collected among oth-
ers by Queen Mary of England and Augustus the Strong. See John Ayers et al. (eds.), Porcelain for Palaces: The
Fashion for Japan in Europe 1650–1750 (London: Oriental Ceramic Society, 1990) and Weng Yu-Wen (ed.), Sailing
the High Seas: A Special Exhibition of Imari Porcelain Wares (Taipei: National Palace Museum, 2015). Morena also
discusses that Europeans turned to the Japanese kilns when the Chinese tightened their export rules. Cosimo
III (1642–1723), Grand Duke of Tuscany, collected Asian works of art and most of the Japanese works (includ-
ing porcelain) were bought in Holland; at the time, Amsterdam was the only European port where Japanese
good arrived. Morena, Di Linea e di Colore, 508.
33 
For the consumption of luxury goods in the Lisbon, Europe and Asia see Annemarie Jordan Gschwend
and Kate Lowe, ‘Shopping on the Rua Nova’, in Jordan and Lowe (eds.), A cicade global, 303–5.
34 
Alan Chong, ‘Christian Ivories by Chinese Artistes: Macau, the Philippines, and elsewhere, late 16th and
17th centuries’ in Alan Chong (ed.), Christianity in Asia: Sacred Art and Visual Splendour (Singapore: Asian
Civilisations Museum, 2016), 204–6.
35 
For Christian ivory sculptures from Goa and Sri Lanka, see Maria de Conceição Borges de Sousa, ‘Ivory
Catechisms: Christian Sculpture from Goa and Sri Lanka’ in Alan Chong (ed.), Christianity in Asia: Sacred Art
and Visual Splendour (Singapore: Asian Civilisations Museum, 2016), 104–11.
12 Clement Onn
would suggest that before long even those made in Flanders will not be
required.36

This record is perhaps the only direct testimony to the activities of Chinese
ivory carvers anywhere in Southeast Asia. The Chinese living in Manila were
almost certainly from Fujian province in southern China. The province’s
ports, including Xiamen, Quanzhou, and Fuzhou, were opened to foreign
trade in 1576, with the result that Fujian merchants ventured to Taiwan, the
Philippines, and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. In turn, the Spanish soon sent
trading expeditions to Fujian ports to bring Chinese goods to Manila.37 By
1600, trade with China began to shift away from Fujian to Macau, as the bulk
of Spanish silver flowed through the latter port. Other luxury goods were
obtainable from Canton (Guangzhou), which drew a large number of tal-
ented artists to Portuguese-controlled Macau. Although Spanish ships were
not allowed to enter Macau in the seventeenth century, Portuguese vessels
could trade freely, and there were other possible ways of circumventing trade
restrictions.38
In 1609, Antonio de Morga (1559–1636) reported that some thirty Chinese
ships arrived in Manila each year, carrying silk, spices, and ivory.39 Moreover,
Fujian people began to settle in Manila. They were known as ‘Sangley’, and
estimated to number about 10,000 by 1589.40 The Chinese of Manila formed
a substantial minority, and outnumbered the Spanish. In 1620, the total pop-
ulation was reported to be 41,400, of whom 20,000 were Filipinos, 16,000
Chinese, 3,000 Japanese, and 2,400 Spanish.41 An important group of Asian
ivories has been in Santa María de Mediavilla in Medina de Rioseco (near
Valladolid) since 1666. Their characteristics are used to date stylistically simi-
lar objects. They were bequeathed to the church by Antonio de Payno

36 
Jesus Gayo Aragón and Antonio Doínguez, Doctrina Christiana: primer libro impreso en Filipinas: facsímile de
ejemplar existente en la Biblioteca Vaticana (Manila: Impr. De la Real y Pontificia Universidad de Santo Tomás,
1951), 77. Other English translations appear in Derek Gillman, ‘Ming and Qing ivories: figure carving’ in
Chinese Ivories from the Shang to the Qing (London: British Museum, 1984), 38; Margarita Estella Marcos, Ivories
from the Far Eastern Provinces of Spain and Portugal (Monterrey: Espejo de Obsidiana Ediciones, 1997), 21;
Marjorie Trusted, ‘Propaganda and Luxury: small-scale Baroque sculptures in Viceregal America and the
Philippines’ in Donna Pierce and Ronald Otsuka (eds.), Asia & Spanish America: Trans-Pacific Artistic & Cultural
Exchange, 1500–1850 (Denver: Denver Art Museum, 2009), 162 note 9; and Chong, ‘Christian Ivories by Chinese
Artists’, 204.
37 
A Spanish trade mission was sent in 1575. See Regalado Trota Jose and Ramon N. Villegas, Power, Faith,
Image: Philippine Art in Ivory from the 16th to the 19th Century (Manila: Ayala Museum, 2004), 22.
38 
See Etsuko Miyata Rodríguez, ‘The early Manila galleon trade: merchants’ networks and markets in six-
teenth– and seventeenth–century Mexico’ in Donna Pierce and Ronald Otsuka (eds.), Asia & Spanish America:
Trans-Pacific Artistic & Cultural Exchange, 1500–1850 (Denver: Denver Art Museum, 2009), 40–3.
39 
Jose and Villegas, Power, Faith, Image, 22
40 
Regalado Trota Jose, Images of Faith: Religious Ivory Carving from the Philippines (Pasedena: Pacific Asia
Museum, 1990), 16.
41 
W. M. Mathers, H. S. Parker III and K. A. Copus (ed.), Archaeological Report. The recovery of the Manila
Galleon Nuestra Señora de la Concepción (Vermont: Pacific Sea Resources, 1990), 15; Quoted in Marjorie Trusted,
The Arts of Spain. Iberia and Latin America 1450–1700 (London: Victoria & Albert Museum, 2007), 201.
 Circulating art and visual hybridity 13
(1602–1666), archbishop of Seville. Among these donations are two large cru-
cifixes, a Madonna of the Rosary, a Saint Andrew, Saint Ignatius of Antioch
attacked by a lion, John the Evangelist, and Saint Lawrence.42 Payno is not
known to have travelled to Mexico or the Philippines, and he must have come
into possession of these ivories in Seville.43
Although these ivories were shipped from Manila through Mexico to
Spain, some caution is required in attributing them solely to Chinese carvers
living in the Philippines (Fig. 3). It is also possible that some ‘Chinese-style’
Christian ivories shipped through Manila were actually made elsewhere in
Asia.44 In the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries there was considerable
trade between Macau and Manila, and the presence of Portuguese merchants
in Mexico also played a significant role in the Manila to Acapulco trade, so
much so that they were perceived as a threat to Spanish merchants.45 Macau
was both a production centre as well as an emporium for export goods.
Numerous objects, including ivories, were probably made in Guangzhou and
then shipped through Macau. For many Christian ivories made before the
end of the seventeenth century, it seems fruitless to try to distinguish between
Chinese artists working in Manila, Macau, Guangzhou, and elsewhere in
China. Certain features, however, such as the ‘tuck in’ of the robes on the
back of standing female ivory figures (Fig 3), called suksok (Tagalog for ‘tuck
in’), have been used to identify works made in Manila in the seventeenth
century.46
A figure of the crucified Christ (Fig. 4) now in the Asian Civilisations
Museum, Singapore, is an interesting case study. The carving of this figure
shows great sensitivity to both emotion and anatomical details. The veins and
musculature are convincingly rendered. The artist used the natural curvature
of the ivory tusk to indicate the arching of Christ’s body. Like most ivory sculp-
tures, this figure was enhanced with paint, particularly on the hair and the
blood seen on the forehead, chest, hands, and feet. Originally it would have
been attached to a wooden cross. Such crucifixes would have been used for
private devotion and public worship, or possibly as a tool to educate and con-
vert the lay people.

42 
Margarita Estella Marcos, La escultura barroca de marfil en España: Las escuelas europeas y las coloniales, 2 vols.
(Madrid: CSIC, 1984), Vol. 1, 65–6; Margarita Estella Marcos, ‘El arte del marfil en la época virreinal: la escuela
Hispanofilipina. Ivory art in the time of the Viceroyalty: the Hispano–Philippine school’ in Las artes del Nuevo
Mundo (Madrid: Coll and Cortès, 2011), 114. On the Saint Ignatius of Antioch figure, also see Trusted, The Arts
of Spain, 200; Trusted, ‘Propaganda and Luxury’, 154; and Gauvin Alexander Bailey, ‘Translation and metamor-
phosis in the Catholic ivories of China, Japan, and the Philippines, 1561–1800’ in Gauvin Alexander Bailey et
al. (ed.), Marfins no império português. Ivories in the Portuguese Empire (Lisbon: Scribe, 2013), 262, fig. 6.
43 
Trusted, ‘Propaganda and Luxury’, 154.
44 
Chong, Christian Ivories by Chinese Artistes, 204–6.
45 
Rodríguez, The early Manila galleon trade, 42–3, 45–6.
46 
The ‘tuck in’ effect of the robes on the back of standing ivory figures is rare and hardly seen in Spanish
or Chinese sculptures. Hence it has been regarded as a strong characteristic of Philippine ivories. For further
discussion, see Jose, Images of Faith, 1990, 33.
14 Clement Onn

Fig. 3  The Virgin Mary, Philippines, Manila; decorated in Mexico, mid-seventeenth century,
painted and gilded ivory, Singapore, Asian Civilisations Museum, 2012-00750 (© Asian
Civilisations Museum, Singapore)

This crucified Christ has characteristics different from similar types said to
be made in Goa, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines. Certain features of the carv-
ing, for example the extremely high, rounded forehead, fine eye slits, and
elongated, high-ridged nose with well-defined nostrils, are characteristics that
are not common to most ivory Christ figures. Could this figure have been
made in Japan?47 The long straight hair is created by deep incisions that
become wavy towards the ends. The carving of the loincloth is flatly levelled as
compared to the voluminous drapery work of Goan ivory figures, or the fine,
even pleats on Sri Lankan ivories. All these characteristics are rarely seen in
Christ figures attributed to Goa, Sri Lanka, or the Philippines. But there is no
documentary evidence that Christian images in ivory were produced in Japan
in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. And there is no mention of
ivory work in connection with the Jesuit art academy in Japan, although it was
apparently active in many other media. The closest comparable example lies

47 
Jose and Villegas, Power, Faith, Image, 57–8; and Bailey, Translation and metamorphosis, 250–4, are unsure
that any known ivory can be assigned to Japan. Pedro Dias, in Ana de Castro Henriques et al. (eds.), Portugal
and the World in the 16th and 17th Centuries (Lisbon: Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, 2009), 364, firmly assigns a
piece of ivory Christ child to Japan.
 Circulating art and visual hybridity 15

Fig. 4  Crucified Christ, probably Japan, early seventeenth century, Ivory, traces of paint,
Singapore, Asian Civilisations Museum, 2012-00383 (© Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore)

in a figure found in the collection of Tokyo National Museum (Fig. 5).

Although it is uncertain where this figure was made, the provenance of this
ivory figure could be traced back to the larger group of Christian objects once
kept in the old Nagasaki Magistrate Office. This group of objects was trans-
ferred to Tokyo National Museum in 1879. Both figures bear similarities in
terms of the carving treatment, for example the awkward twist to the arms and
16 Clement Onn

Fig. 5  Crucified Christ, unknown, late sixteenth century or early seventeenth century, ivory,
Tokyo, Tokyo National Museum, C-685 (© Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo)

a flatly carved loincloth. Do these figures suggest that there may be a small
group of artistes in Japan working on ivory carvings for the Christian market?
Or perhaps they were made elsewhere and were imported into Japan?

JAPANESE EXPORT LACQUER AND ITS IMPACT IN THE VICEROYALTY OF NEW SPAIN

It is well known that Japanese lacquer was exported to Europe from the second
half of the sixteenth century onwards. At first, the Portuguese were the only
patrons, but soon Spain, Holland, England, and even the Viceroyalty of New
Spain entered the market. Lacquer was unknown in Europe until the sixteenth
 Circulating art and visual hybridity 17
century. When the Portuguese started exporting Japanese lacquerware into
Europe, it became extremely popular. It was in great demand, not only be-
cause urushi lacquer was an exotic material, but also because the Japanese style
of gold and mother-of-pearl decoration, sometimes enhanced with other ma-
terials, was so compelling.48 Chests, boxes, and writing cabinets were produced
for export, along with Christian objects such as host boxes, lecterns, shrines.49
Missionaries in Japan often commented on the beauty of Japanese lacquer-
ware, and many Jesuits devoted time to understanding the production of these
wares, and wrote detailed instructions for the packing and shipping of these
precious objects.50 In 1591, the Jesuit Luís Fróis (1532–1597) praised a box
‘entirely covered inside and out with a type of varnish which in Japan is called
urushi; sprinkled with gold ground as fine as sand; it is a work of great value…’.51
Japanese lacquerware made for the European market in the late sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries has survived in considerable numbers.52 These
objects, often called namban lacquer, were made-to-order and mostly based on
European or Indian-European models.53 As early as 1557, some namban lac-
quer objects had reached Lisbon, as shown in the inventory of Queen
Catherine of Austria (1507–1558), wife of the Portuguese King João III
(reigned 1521–57).54 The earliest recorded namban object that has survived
seems to be a coffer presented to the royal Monastery of Las Descalzas Reales,
Madrid, recorded as early as 1582, and still in the collection today.55
Japanese export lacquerware is characterised by its relatively coarsely
applied lacquer. Japanese artists worked with sap (urushi) from the lacquer
tree (Rhus verniciflua), also used in China, and Korea. When making objects
for export, they applied a few layers onto a wooden core, often without the
base layer of textile that would be the norm for domestic wares. The process

48 
Pedro Moura Carvalho et al. (eds.), The World of Lacquer: 2000 years of History (Lisbon: Calouste
Gulbenkian Museum, 2001), 105–23; Oliver Impey and Christiaan Jörge, Japanese Export Lacquer: 1580–1850
(Amsterdam: Hotei, 2005), 18–19 and 77–83.
49 
For shrines, see Impey and Jörg, Japanese Export Lacquer, 186–90; for other types of Christian objects, see
158 and 169–70.
50 
See Leonor Leiria, ‘Namban art: packing and transportation’, Bulletin of Portuguese–Japanese Studies, no.
5, December 2002, 49–65.
51 
Leiria, Namban art, 56, note 23.
52 
For detailed readings of various studies on Japanese export lacquer, see M.H. Mendes Pinto, Namban
lacquerware in Portugal: the Portuguese presence in Japan 1543–1639 (Lisbon: Edições Inapa, 1990); Moura Carvalho
et al., The World of Lacquer; Impey and Jörg Japanese Export Lacquer; Teresa Canepa, Silk, Porcelain and Lacquer:
China and Japan and their trade with western Europe and the New World, 1500–1644 (London, Paul Holberto
Publishing, 2016).
53 
Kaori Hidaka, ‘Maritime trade in Asia and the circulation of lacquerware’ in Shayne Rivers et al. (eds.),
East Asian Lacquer: material culture, science and conservation (London: Archetype in Association with the V&A,
2011), 7.
54 
Oliver Impey and Arthur MacGregor, The Origins of Museums. The Cabinet of Curiosities in Sixteenth- and
Seventeenth Century Europe (London: Ashmolean Museum, 2001), 108.
55 
Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales, Madrid, inv. no. 00612585, see Helmut Trnek et al. (eds.), Exotica: the
Portuguese discoveries and the Renaissance Kunstkammer (Lisbon: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 2001), 229–31,
cat. 107.
18 Clement Onn
was repetitive and demanding. Each layer was polished and left to consolidate
before the next layer was applied, then the process was repeated.56 Polishing
work creates a deep gloss, an effect similar to a mirror. Many layers of lacquer
form a coating that is waterproof and durable. Pieces of mother-of-pearl can
be inlaid into the lacquer before it dries completely. These are cut to shape to
form a pattern or picture, or part thereof. Decoration painted in gold leaf or
powder (maki-e) further enhances the surface.57
Japanese export lacquer objects are good examples of hybrid art. They com-
bined Asian raw materials and decorative techniques with European shapes,
often based on models brought by the Europeans. A Japanese lacquer chest at
the Victoria and Albert Museum (Fig. 6) is an excellent example of how the
movement of goods, people, and ideas can be encapsulated in a single object.
The chest is a rectangular box, with a hinged, semi-cylindrical lid. This shape
was common in Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The
exterior is veneered with a pattern of mother-of-pearl plaques that resembles
fish scales. Each piece is secured by a gilded copper pin. The interior surface
is completely covered in lacquer with gold decoration.
This type of decorative work using mother-of-pearl inlays was also done
in Gujarat, where there were workshops specialising in this meticulous tech-
nique (Fig. 7). The Portuguese were familiar with these types of objects and
had been exporting them back to Europe. It is possible that examples were
brought into Japan by the Portuguese merchants, and local lacquer artists
were commissioned to copy the designs and combine them with their own
Japanese lacquer techniques. Thus the Victoria and Albert Museum exam-
ple traces cross-cultural connections in its form, decorative technique, and
motifs. It is a hybrid amalgamation involving Portuguese traders and Japanese
craftsmen working to satisfy the taste of a European patron.
Folding lecterns, sometimes called missal stands, used to support the Bible
or texts used to celebrate the Catholic Mass, are another group of lacquer
objects that are good examples of cross-cultural art. Many were probably com-
missioned by the Jesuits in Japan. The front panel where the book rests is
usually decorated with a large medallion enclosing the IHS (Iesus Hominum
Salvator, Jesus Saviour of Mankind) monogram, surrounded by rays of sun-
burst, an emblem of the Society of Jesus – the Jesuits. When closed, the stand
is flat; when open, it forms an X-shape. The shape and method of construc-
tion probably derives from models made in India or Southeast Asia in a centre
that was controlled by the Portuguese or traded predominantly with them
(Fig. 8). The folding mechanism probably derives from the Quran stands
commonly seen in the Islamic world. It is usually made from a single slab of

56 
For further details, see Yayoi Kawamura et al. (eds.), Namban Lacquer: Japan remained in Spain: 400 years
after the Keichô Embassy (Leiden: uitdraai RMV en bindwerk Bronsgeest HABI, 2013), 15.
57 
Maki-e (‘sprinkled picture’) is a generic term for various Japanese lacquer techniques in which metal
powders, mainly of gold and silver, are sprinkled onto lacquer before it hardens.
 Circulating art and visual hybridity 19

Fig. 6  Namban chest, Momoyama or early Edo period, late sixteenth or early seventeenth
century, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, inv. no. FE.33-1983 (© Victoria and Albert
Museum, London)

wood. The lectern (Fig. 9) in the Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore,

bears several stylistic similarities with the one in Namban Bunkakan Osaka
(Fig. 10). Both appear to be products of seventeenth-century Japan. Like most
Japanese export lacquer, they are lacquered in black, decorated in gold, and
inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The design and decoration of both are similar.
On the front panel, the IHS monogram is within a medallion surrounded by
rays of sunburst or flames, and the four corners are filled with floral designs.
The types of flowers and leafy motifs depicted are similar on both. A unique
feature is the low-relief carving work on the corner quadrants and on the cen-
tral medallion in the Namban Bunkakan Osaka lectern. This carving work
relates to similar designs on a group of Indian lacquered objects, probably
made in centres that had strong Portuguese influence.58
Could these lecterns have been made outside Japan? Or could some Indian
lacquered objects, in turn, have influenced Japanese lacquer artists? On the

58 
Moura Carvalho attributed a small group of objects and furniture that show similar characteristics to
Japan, the Ryukyu Islands, and Cochin. He suggested Cochin could be a potential centre for this type of work
but there could also be other possible locations to consider such as the Coromandel Coast. Craftsmen who
produced these works seems to have been inspired by Japanese export lacquer types, See Moura Carvalho et al.,
The World of Lacquer, 75–7.
20 Clement Onn

Fig. 7  Casket, India, Gujarat, sixteenth or seventeenth century, mother-of-pearls, wood,

gilded silver pins, engraved metal mounts, Singapore, Asian Civilisations Museum, 2011-02266
(©Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore)

latter speculation, Japanese lacquer artists did incorporate mother-of-pearl

inlays similar to the type on works from Gujarat. Recent scientific analysis of
the lacquer used on the lectern from Osaka has revealed important insights
into Japanese export lacquer.59 The results identified lacquer from the sap of
Rhus succedanea, a tree grown in Vietnam and Taiwan, to supply sap, called
laccol, for lacquer.60 This finding is not unique. We are beginning to identify a
small corpus of Japanese export objects that used thitsiol lacquer or had a com-
bination of both thitsiol or laccol and urushi lacquer. Analysis of samples from
four pieces of eighteenth-century French furniture with panels of Japanese
lacquer in the J. Paul Getty Museum, and a namban bedstead from a private
collection in Portugal, showed similar results.61 And recent archaeological
studies have revealed that thitsiol lacquer was used in Kyoto in the sixteenth

59 
Koji Kobayashi and a team of researchers and scientists have analysed a small sample of lacquer objects
in Japan and Europe. Their research on this particular lectern was discussed in the symposium, In Search of the
Multiple Origins of Namban Lacquer, organised by the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties
(Tobunken), Tokyo, 4–5 March 2017.
60 
The traditional Japanese lacquer, urushiol, comes from Rhus vernicifera (now called Toxicodendron vernici-
fluum), is grown and used in China, Korea, and Japan; Melanorrhoea usitate, grown in Thailand and Burma, not
native to Japan, is another tree cultivated for lacquer sap, called thitsiol.
61 
For more details on the pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py–GC/MS) findings on
these objects, see the work of Heginbotham and Schilling 2011, 92–106 and Curvelo 2013, 76.
 Circulating art and visual hybridity 21

Fig. 8  Book stand with the Jesuit emblem, Goa or southern India, seventeenth century, gilded and
painted wood, Private collection of Mr and Mrs Lee Kip Lee, Singapore

and seventeenth centuries. Further archival research in the Dutch East India
Company records shows that thitsiol lacquer was imported into Japan.62 From
1636 to 1643, between fifty to one hundred tons of lacquer were imported
into Japan annually. It is probable that sources of local urushi lacquer were
insufficient to meet demand for both domestic and export orders. Other sup-
plies of raw materials therefore had to be sourced. It would be interesting to
discover if a test on the lectern in the Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore,

62 
Samples of lacquer were taken for analysis from a ceramic jar unearthed from sixteenth- or seven-
teenth-century ruins in Kyoto. See Takayuki Honda et al., ‘Applied Analysis and Identification of Ancient
Lacquer based on pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry’, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 118
(2010), 897–901.
22 Clement Onn

Fig. 9  Book stand with the Jesuit emblem, probably Japan or Macau, seventeenth century, lacquer,
wood, mother-of-pearl, gold gilding, Singapore, Asian Civilisations Museum, 2017-01084
(©Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore)

would bear similar results, thus showing it belongs to this corpus of Japanese
export objects that used either laccol or thitsiol lacquer.
Japanese works of art have also inspired artists in New Spain to create their
own versions of folding screens and painted lacquerware. Mexican folding
screens incorporated Japanese aesthetics and techniques, such as the use of
 Circulating art and visual hybridity 23

Fig. 10  Book stand with the Jesuit emblem, probably Japan, seventeenth century, lacquer, wood,
mother-of-pearl, gold gilding, Osaka, Namban Bunkakan (© Namban Bunkakan, Osaka)

gold decoration, clouds as dividers between scenes, and gold leaf applied to
three-dimensional raised details. The production of folding screens started
around the first half of the seventeenth century. The folding screen in the
collection of Museo de America, depicting a scene in front of the Viceroy’s
Palace in Mexico City, is perhaps one of the earliest example of this genre.
Another fascinating example of a folding screen (Fig. 11) in the collection of
24 Clement Onn

Fig. 11  Folding screen depicting the Great Flood, Macau or México, end seventeenth century
or early eighteenth century, tempera and oil on paper, wood, gold gilding, México, Museo
Soumaya, Fundación Carlos Sim (© Colección Museo Soumaya. Fundación Carlos Slím,
A.C./ México City)

Museo Soumaya, Mexico City, was presented in a recent exhibition in Japan.63

This screen depicts the story of Noah and the Great Flood from the Book of
Genesis. Asian mythical beasts such as the phoenix and qilin (a hooved, com-
posite, chimerical creature) are depicted alongside European examples,
including a pair of unicorns. Other than the techniques and materials used,
the styles and imagery draw our attention to the possible impact of Japanese
and Chinese art on colonial Mexican art.
The Mexican use of varnishing, gilding, and mother-of-pearl inlays was also
influenced by Japanese works.64 A group of framed paintings made in colo-
nial Mexico known as enconchado (shell inlay) are also thought to have been
influenced by Japanese export lacquerware.65 These works merge mother-of-

63 
Kyushu National Museum (ed.), Daikoukai jidai no Nihon bijutsu. Japanese Art in the Age of Discoveries
(Fukuoka: Kyushu National Museum, 2017), catalogue entry 121, 162–4.
64 
Sofia Sanabrais, ‘The Biombos or Folding Screen in Colonial Mexico’ in Donna Pierce and Ronald
Otsuka (ed.), Asia & Spanish America: Trans-Pacific Artistic & Cultural Exchange, 1500–1850 (Denver: Denver Art
Museum, 2009), 69–106.
65 
A series of twenty–four enconchado paintings are in the collection of the Museo de America, Madrid with
scenes of the conquest of Mexico.
 Circulating art and visual hybridity 25
pearl inlay and the lacquer decoration seen on furniture, with European oil
painting traditions to produce distinctly Mexican cross-cultural works of art.66
Like the folding screens, these so-called enconchado works first developed in
the late seventeenth century. The frames of these paintings are profusely dec-
orated with inlaid mother-of-pearl, a lacquer-like varnish, and gilding to cre-
ate floral motifs and birds, mostly. The treatments used to embellish the
frames are often carried over to the paintings too: mother-of-pearl and gild-
ing are added to enhance the painting itself. It is the look of the decorative
style on the frame of enconchado works that draws strong parallels with
Japanese export lacquerware.67 The panels are signed by Mexican enconchado
artists Miguel and Juan González, and bear the date 1698. They were sent to
Charles II (reigned 1665–1700), the last Spanish Habsburg king, and were
placed in a room known as las Bóvedas de Tiziano (Titian Vaults) of the royal
palace in Madrid.68 The room was decorated with paintings by Titian. This is
another fascinating example of spatial hybridity in Spain royal collections:
enconchado paintings displayed in the same room alongside European old
masters.69
From 1613 to 1620, an entourage of Japanese officials travelled to Spain via
the Transpacific Ocean route. This mission was known as the Keichō Embassy.
Their main goals were to request that Franciscans missionaries be sent to
Japan, and to finalise a treaty with Spain that would allow trade with colonial
Mexico. The delegation travelled to Mexico City and Havana before sailing
for Seville. The objectives were never met, but some Japanese artists from the
mission settled in Spain and Mexico. Records show that some Japanese
remained in Coria del Río in Spain, and other locations.70 There were also
groups of Chinese and Japanese settled in Puebla and other places in Mexico.
It is possible to think that among these groups, there were craftsmen who

66 
Donna Pierce, ‘By the Boatload. Receiving and Recreating the Arts of Asia’ in Dennis A. Carr et al. (eds.),
Made in the Americas: the new world discovers Asia (Boston: MFA Publications, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2016),
62–4.
67 
Jorge Rivas Ruiz, ‘Enconchado Frames: The Use of Japanese Ornamental Models in New Spanish
Painting’ in Donna Pierce and Ronald Otsuka (eds.), Asia & Spanish America: Trans-Pacific Artistic & Cultural
Exchange, 1500–1850 (Denver: Denver Art Museum, 2009), 129–49.
68 
Gloria Fernández Bayton (ed.), Inventarios reales. Testamentaria del Rey Carlos II, 1701–1703 (Madrid:
Museo del Prado, 1975), Vol. 1, 152. For a discussion of its provenance, see María Concepción García Sáiz, ‘La
conquista militar y los enconchados: Las peculiaridades de un patrocinio indiano’ in Los princeles de la historia:
El origen del reino de la Nueva España, 1680–1750 (Mexico City: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes-
Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, 1999), 111–14.
69 
Hiroshige Okada, ‘Kinun tanabiku Noah no Daikouzui: Koutsuu suru sekai bijutsu to momoyama no Nihon.
Noah’s Ark under Golden Clouds: Momoyama Japan in a Globally Connected Art World’ in Kyushu National
Museum (ed.), Daikoukai jidai no Nihon bijutsu. Japanese Art in the Age of Discoveries (Fukuoka: Kyushu National
Museum, 2017), 171–7.
70 
Javier Villalba Fernández, ‘Japón, Date Masamune, y la embajada Keichô’ in Yayoi Kawamura et al. (eds.),
Namban Lacquer: Japan remained in Spain: 400 years after the Keichô Embassy (Leiden: uitdraai RMV en bindwerk
Bronsgeest HABI, 2013), 81.
26 Clement Onn
made furniture and screens, and then passed the techniques on to local
practitioners.71
Many works of art discussed in this article are products of networks that
linked port cities across Asia. Although they may have characteristics con-
nected with standard cultural classifications (Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and
so forth), other aspects of them appear to lie outside these stylistic spheres.
When dealing with cross-cultural, hybrid works of art, one often encounters
ambiguity and a variety of perplexing nuances. Analysis of such objects must
take into account the complex network of circulation through different artis-
tic production centres, commercial responses to popular types (competing,
copying, counterfeiting, and mass-producing), the wide-ranging distribution
of bulk and luxury goods, and common demand across regional and global
markets. Embodied in an ivory Christ figure and the Japanese namban chest
and lectern, these factors suggest the need for a new art historical approach,
wherein such characteristics can be rehabilitated and validated, to aid us in
interpreting a past which we are coming to realise was much more compli-
cated than it at first might appear.
There are many questions worth posing about the circulation and artistic
hybridity of the objects discussed in this paper. In the case of lacquerware, it is
possible to build on the corpus of Japanese export artworks that used lacquer
(laccol or thitsiol) from Southeast Asia. Other scientific analysis to identify the
species of wood and mother-of-pearls used may shed new insights; if not, it
could help in our understanding on the complex circulation of raw materials
and production of Japanese export lacquer ware. Whether these works were
made in Japan, using imported raw materials, or made in China or Southeast
Asia under the stylistic influence of Japanese lacquer ware or Japanese crafts-
men, as revealed was with the surviving examples from colonial Mexico. The
objective lies less in pinpointing the origins of these objects, but hoping to
further acknowledge of the shared characteristics and long history of interac-
tions among cultures embodied in the hybridity of objects.

Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore

71 
See Pilar Cabãnas Moreno, ‘Huellas del arte Japonés en Nueva España: biombos, enconchados y maques’
in Yayoi Kawamura et al. (eds.), Namban Lacquer: Japan remained in Spain: 400 years after the Keichô Embassy
(Leiden: uitdraai RMV en bindwerk Bronsgeest HABI, 2013), 308; and the source in Manuel Carballo,
‘Influencia Asiática’ in C. Aguilera et al. (eds.), El muelba Mexicano: Historia, evolución e influencias (Mexico City:
Formento Cultural Banamex, 1985), 126.
 Circulating art and visual hybridity 27
This article examines on circulation and visual hybridity in works of art produced in
Japan and other major Asian port cities under the control of Portugal and Spain.
Cultural influences from the Iberian Peninsula, via traders and missionaries, had a
significant impact on artistic production in Japan in the late sixteenth and early
seventeenth century. Many foreign objects brought by the Europeans into Japan
exhibit hybrid forms. These hybrid objects played their part in influencing Japanese
local production. The impact of Japanese art exported to Europe and colonial Mexico
further illustrates the complex circulation of artists and craftsmen, goods and ideas.
As artworks travelled in and out of the different artistic production centres in Asia,
they both influenced new production and were adapted to local styles and traditions.
This article demonstrates that artistic and cultural exchanges are not one-directional
transmission but rather a far more complicated process of hybridization. The article
concludes with a call for new art historical approaches for looking at hybrid objects,
wherein there is less focus on exactly where and by whom it was made, and more
acknowledgement of the shared characteristics and long history of interactions
among cultures embodied in the hybridity of objects.

Keywords: Japan, Portugal, Spain, circulations, hybridity