A quick google search of “Adirondack great camps” yields dozens of articles describing compounds filled with taxidermy and exposed wood and stone (typical rustic decor.) Without fail, almost every article also mentions Japanese fans. Upon recognizing this consistent outlier, I went down a rabbit hole searching for the answer to why, in such a white, remote location, Japanese fans were such a staple. As it turns out, the answer connects back to many of the central issues of the Adirondacks: isolation, cultural conflict, and admiration of the outdoors.

In 1853, Japan famously ended its period of social and economic isolationism, exposing Japanese markets and culture to the rest of the world. Almost immediately afterward, a “Japanese Craze” swept the Western world (Jenn M). Europeans began purchasing Japanese paintings, furniture, and clothing, and folding fans became a staple accessory for Victorian women of all social classes. The industrial revolution meant Japanese goods could be produced in mass quantity and purchased by the average consumer. 

Americans weren’t exposed to Japanese culture until the 1876 Centennial Convention in Philadelphia (Ujifusa). Visitors to the event were exhausted by the dull predictability of Victorian-style exposés: a reminder of decades of bitterness from industrialization and the Civil War. The Japanese exhibit offered a refreshing shift East, which consumers devoured. 

Cities filled with smog, disease, and immigrants were recipes for claustrophobia and the need to get away.  Much like the Adirondacks, Japanese art offered a contrast to the chaos of American cities. Paintings and decorative fans depicted harmonious, minimal, and natural scenes, and had an artisanal feeling compared to Western commodities. American cultural homogeneity, coupled with wealth, fueled the Adirondack japanophilia that ensued. The reasons elite New Englanders obsessed over Japanese culture were the same as those that caused them to visit the Adirondacks. For those with summer homes, their perceptions of Japanese culture embodied everything they wanted from their Adirondack lives. 

On its surface, love for another culture is harmless, if not admirable. Yet superficial obsession over other cultures is problematic, the reasons for which we, in the age of cancel culture, are familiar. The isolation of places like the Adirondacks allows its inhabitants to pursue whatever type of fantasy they want, from appropriation to homogeneity. While some fetishized Japanese culture, others used the Adirondacks as an escape from immigrant-filled cities, proceeding to exclude non-white visitors from their camps and country clubs. The example of Japanese decor is a prototype for the ways racial and economic privilege allows people to appreciate selective aspects of other cultures. Without embracing or understanding them fully.

Works Cited

“Chapter 21: Birth of the Great Camp, Chapter 22: Haute Rustic.” The Adirondacks: A History of America’s First Wilderness, by Paul Schneider, H. Holt and Co., 1998, pp. 241–276.

“File:Anglo Japanese Furniture 1875.jpg.” Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. 29 Oct 2020, 18:40 UTC. 29 Oct 2021, 15:55 <https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Anglo_Japanese_Furniture_1875.jpg&oldid=506661126>.

“File:Brise Fan LACMA M.78.108.10.jpg.” Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. 21 Jan 2019, 17:42 UTC. 29 Oct 2021, 15:56 <https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Brise_Fan_LACMA_M.78.108.10.jpg&oldid=335756712>.

“File:Tea Room, Pine Tree Point, Upper St Regis Lake, NY.JPG.” Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. 15 Jun 2021, 17:13 UTC. 29 Oct 2021, 15:55 <https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Tea_Room,_Pine_Tree_Point,_Upper_St_Regis_Lake,_NY.JPG&oldid=569273851>.

M, Jenn. “A Tale of Two Nations: Victorian America and the Japan Craze.” NMSC Archeology & Museum Blog, 18 Mar. 2014, nmscarcheologylab.wordpress.com/2014/03/18/a-tale-of-two-nations-victorian-america-and-the-japan-craze/.

Ujifusa, Steven. “Japan-a-Mania at the Centennial.” The PhillyHistory Blog, 10 May 2010, blog.phillyhistory.org/index.php/2010/05/japan-a-mania-at-the-centennial/.