Japan had a vibrant and robust Art Deco scene, and the influence of the ... from the period, including vases, large-scale paintings, advertisements, sheet music, cigarette packages, domestic ...

Japanese Art Deco is a distinctive breed ... is abstracted in an enamelware vase. Living national treasures such as Sasaki Shodo, Takamura Toyochika and Kanamori Eiichi are represented.

One is that it shows [Japanese artists] being up to date and international -- European-American -- so it's very cosmopolitan ... But [when the deco and art nouveau styles] are being developed in ...

Satsuma, a city in Japan, has a special meaning to collectors ... Styles changed about 1918 to 1930, when art-nouveau and art-deco designs -- especially pictures of irises -- became popular.

It was an era of exotic hardwoods, silhouettes inspired by skyscrapers, and gleaming chrome, but there was also more to it than you may realize ...