Japonisme and Japanophobia: The Russo‐Japanese War in Russian Cultural Consciousness

Abstract

T At happened completely unexpectedly for us, and for everyone in our circle. But it was as if other circles too were ill-prepared for it? those who were supposed to 'be in charge. '1 As Alexander Benois recollects in his memoirs, almost no one in Russia expected war to break out with Japan in the winter of 1904, and still less did anyone understand why there should be military hostilities in such a remote part of the country. On January 26, Nicholas II had gone to spend the evening at the Mariinsky Theater, while in Port Arthur, at the other end of the empire, Vice-Admiral Stark was celebrating his wife's name-day.2 The surprise midnight attack on the Russian naval squadron in Port Arthur naturally unleashed an immediate torrent of patriotic feeling against Japan. As Admiral Makarov and General Kuropatkin set off for the front with mountains of donated icons, right-wing newspapers vilified Asian perfidy, noisy demonstrations were held in the country's major cities, loyal subjects took to the streets with portraits of the tsar, and audiences in theaters all over Russia demanded that the national anthem be played.3 Bizarrely, however, this was also a high-water mark for the movement called Japonisme in Russia. That the October and November 1904 issues of the Symbolist journal Vesy should feature a set of prominent Japanese illustrations is testament to the intense enthusiasm for Japanese culture shown by