Japonism, or Japonisme, the original French term, was first used in 1872 by Jules Claretie in his book L'Art Francais en 1872 and by Philippe Burty (1830–1890) in Japanisme III. La Renaissance Literaire et Artistique in the same year. Japonism might be considered a general term for the influence of the arts of Japan on those of the West, whereas in France Japonisme is applied to such influence and is in addition the name of a specific French style. In England objects influenced by Japonism have been termed Anglo-Japanese, from as early as 1851, according to Widar Halen in Christopher Dresser, 1990, p. 33.

From the 1860s, ukiyo-e, Japanese wood-block prints, became a source of inspiration for many European impressionist painters in France and elsewhere, and eventually for Art Nouveau and Cubism. Artists were especially affected by the lack of perspective and shadow, the flat areas of strong color, the compositional freedom in placing the subject off-centre, with mostly a low diagonal axis to the background. Unlike other varieties of Orientalism, Japonism mostly involved Western artists using elements of Eastern styles in works showing their own culture; if only because of the difficulty of travel, there were relatively few artists attempting Eastern scenes in a Western style.^{[citation needed]}

Taro Hakase (葉加瀬 太郎, Hakase Tarō^?, born January 23, 1968 in Suita, Osaka Prefecture) is a Japanese musician who specialises as a violinist.

He is best known internationally for playing the violin on Celine Dion's song "To Love You More" which appears on the US edition of her Let's Talk About Love album. With the success of the song, Hakase went on a nationwide promotional tour making television appearances and also went on tour with Dion to perform the song during her 1996-1997 Falling into You Tour and her 1998-1999 Let's Talk About Love Tour as guest violinist. When Dion began her two years off to have her son Rene Charles, Hakase continues his music career on his own. In 2006, to celebrate 10 years of his success, Hakase reunited with Dion in Las Vegas, Nevada during a performance of her show A New Day... to perform "To Love You More".

He performed "Addio monti (I promessi sposi)" on the 2007 Ennio Morricone tribute album We All Love Ennio Morricone, and also co-composed the album Symphonic Poem "Hope" with Yuji Toriyama, a collection of themes used in promotional videos for Final Fantasy XII.