My essay situates the collecting of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting within the context of Japanese practices and thinking about its own cultural traditions. Taking as its focus major international businessmen including Matsukata Kojiro and Ohara Magusaburo, who were active in the late 19th- and early 20th centuries, I brought into focus the historical, social and economic circumstances that made possible the formation of Japan's major museums of Western art and the changing meanings these institutions and their contents have assumed.

The essay was written for a catalogue that accompanied an international exhibition held in the Honolulu Academy of Arts between April and June 2004. It was the first exhibition abroad to feature European paintings by artists including Collin, Monet, Gauguin, and Cezanne together with paintings by the Japanese artists who admired or studied with them. While other essays published in the same volume, Japan and Paris-: Impressionism, Post-Impressionism and the Modern Era focused on the Japanese artists represented, my essay, the first of its kind in English, dealt with the cluster of collectors whose personal taste and determination to promote contemporary European painting first gave the Japanese public direct access to works by living artists representative of major European modernist movements. I also discussed how these collectors and the Japanese oil painters they supported (re)interpreted these European imports in light of their own traditions. The exhibition included a symposium during which I presented portions of the essay. The accompanying catalogue was recognised among the outstanding art books of the year by The San Francisco Chronicle newspaper.