The dramatic effect that the 1854 opening up of Japan to the world had on Western art and fashion is well known. In fact, Japanese objects had been shown in London as early as 1825, then at the Great Exhibition in 1851 (although there they were undocumented) and in Dublin in 1853.

In 1854 itself, a Japanese selling show was held at the Old Watercolour Society’s Pall Mall gallery, where the brand new V&A Museum was a buyer. However, a much greater sensation was occasioned by the London and Paris International Exhibitions of 1862 and 1867, the latter subsequently prompting the critic Philippe Burty’s coinage, ‘Japonisme’, for the frenzy.

Yoshitoshi’s Watanabe no Tsuna . £2,032 (Image credit: Forum Auctions/Dreweatts)

The first objects to be seen were mostly contemporary, even if they d

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