Confluences

France and Japan have shared much in a long and critical history of artistic practice and production. France has been an important source of energy for Japanese intellectual endeavors, and the impact of French painting, literature, and thought on Japan cannot be overstated. Likewise, France has been stimulated by an image of Japan as 'Other' and the impact of Japanese prints on French (and European) art, the artistic production known as Japonisme, and the creative responses to Japanese poetic and damatic forms are profound. Confluences details these exchanges and in doing so elucidates much of the development of national and individual identities, especially as filtered through artistic endeavors.