The Japanese Imperial Pavilion opened its doors on Barcelona's Gran Via on October 7, 1881, becoming the first major showcase of Japanese art in the city.
The 7th of October 1881 saw the opening of the Japanese Imperial Pavilion on Barcelona's Gran Via, after a heavy downpour forced a delay from the originally planned inauguration at the end of September. According to El Debate, the temporary building occupied a plot between Rambla de Cataluña and Paseo de Gracia, on the very site where the Avenida Palace hotel and Palacio Marcet now stand.
The initiative was spearheaded by Carles Maristany, a young man from a wealthy family who, after inheriting a substantial fortune, travelled to the Far East. He was in Japan between 1880 and early 1881, and upon his return, he founded the company La Imperial Japonesa with stage designers Fèlix Urgellés and Miquel Moragas, established on June 16, 1881.
The company aimed to install the pavilion in Plaça de Catalunya, but municipal architect Antoni Rovira i Trias denied that location. Complaints about the proliferation of tents, theatres, and temporary constructions in the square influenced the decision. The City Council then authorised the Gran Via plot, with the condition of maintaining five metres distance from Paseo de Gracia and fourteen metres from Rambla de Cataluña.
The structure was designed to be dismantled and later transported to Madrid or Valencia. It opened daily from four in the afternoon to ten at night and admission cost one peseta, a high price for the time. The press of the day highlighted the façade and the interior rooms, where utensils, engravings, and everyday objects from Japanese society were displayed.
The pavilion was the most visible architectural expression of a trend that was already evident in the city's commerce. In 1878, the Pasaje del Crédito became the centre of the oriental art market, with shops like El Mikado, on Bajada de San Miguel, or the Japanese goods warehouses of Santiago Gisbert, on calle de la Lleona.
The trend also reached workshops and cafés. The cabinetmaker Francesc Vidal set up his furniture shop in the passage and, in 1884, moved to a building designed by Josep Vilaseca at the junction of Diputación and Bailén streets. Nearby was the workshop of the Masriera brothers, and the taste for the oriental spread to the intellectual elite who frequented the Ateneo and the café Els Quatre Gats.
In architecture, Vilaseca brought that fascination to the façade of the Casa Bruno Cuadros, on the Rambla, which he renovated in 1883. Known as the House of Umbrellas, the building was adorned with parasols, fans, wooden latticework, wrought iron, coloured glass, and an iron dragon on the corner.
Antonio Gaudí interpreted that influence more organically in his early projects, drawing inspiration from ukiyo-e engravings and the way Japanese culture observes nature.
Trending on the web
You may also like
