Samuel Way leaves his exotic Japanese art collection in major 1916 bequest to South Australia's art gallery

South Australian chief justice Samuel Way and examples of the Japanese ceramics among his bequest to South Australia's art gallery in 1916.
Images courtesy University of Adelaide, Art Gallery of South Australia, State Library of South Australia

Samuel Way remained the single greatest early donor of Japanese art to South Australia's art gallery from his bequest in 1916.

When Way died, the then-National Art Gallery of South Australia selected about 850 art works and curios from his house and the rest was sent to auction. About 250 of these were Japanese, including mainly decorative arts – ceramics, bronzes, armour, cloisonné, intricate ivory carvings of everyday subjects, mythological and historical subjects, and netsuke and okimono – reflecting the 19th Century taste for exotica, no prints, paintings or painted screens.

Way’s bequest also extended to his collection of law books given to the supreme court library and his other books to the University of Adelaide where he served as vice-chancellor and chancellor for more than 30 years.

Way had first become acquainted with Japanese art through the visit to the officers of the Japanese corvette Ryujo in Adelaide, and had before his trip amassed a large collection through local purchases, probably at the Japanese village during the South Australian jubilee exhibition in 1887, and auctions and exhibitions in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.

On New Year’s Day 1891, South Australia’s then-lieutenant governor and chief justice Samuel Way left Adelaide on the Austral on a 13-month journey around the world, principally to receive an honorary degree from Oxford University and attend the Methodist ecumenical conference in Washington. He travelled through Europe via India, Egypt, Palestine, Turkey and Lebanon, then through the United States of America, before boarding the Canadian Royal mail steamer Empress of Japan at Victoria, British Columbia, and arriving in Yokohama in December 1891.

Way suffered  a serious viral infection and was confined to bed in the Grand Hotel under treatment from his brother, the Adelaide Hospital surgeon Dr Edward Way, who’d already planned to meet Samuel in Yokohama as part of his cruise on the yacht Saidee, owned by the railway magnate C.G. Millar. By January 6, Way was well enough to catch the train with his brother to Tokyo where he shopped for curios including ivory netsuke, plants for his Montefiore garden and silks. Way also spent two days in Kyoto where he enthusiastically shopped for curios and silks.

Way bought in Japan ivory, pottery, cloisonné, silk textiles and screens, metalware, an Ainu wood carving, lacquer, tables, plants and books. He arrived back in Adelaide in 1892 after 13 months away.

• Information from from Jennifer Harris “The formation of the Japanese Art Collection at the Art Gallery of South Australia 1904-1940: tangible evidence of Bunmei Kaika”. PhD thesis for Adelaide University school of history and politics, 2012.