With the opening of Japan near the end of the Edo period, ukiyo-e, ceramics, and other Japanese art objects crossed the seas. They had a powerful impact on Europe, where a fashion for things Japanese sprang up in many countries. The elegant use of color and the bold compositions found in those works had a profound influence on the birth of Impressionism and Art Nouveau, a fin de siècle movement to reform the decorative arts. The phenomenon we now refer to as Japonisme is strongly evident in the work of Emile Gallé, a standard bearer for Art Nouveau and a glass artist born in the city of Nancy, in eastern France. The distinctive world of his works, with a profusion of many-colored flowers in bloom and grasshoppers and dragonflies soaring about, is modeled on the natural world and admiration for the beauty of the changing seasons. In the background to the birth of that highly original Gallé style we can see his passionate regard for Japanese art. In this exhibition, to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the opening of the Kitazawa Museum of Art, we present his works related to Japonisme and other masterpieces from our Gallé collection, one of the finest in the world.