[3] The wealthy collector and dealer Bing had placed himself at the centre of Japanese art circles in Paris;[4] where he had relocated from Hamburg in Germany to take over a branch of the family business dealing in imports of French porcelain.

[4] Bing enlisted his friend, the director of the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg Justus Brinckmann (1843–1915), to translate and print a German-language edition of the magazine.

French artist and collector of Japanese art George Auriol expressed hope that the magazine would rekindle an appreciation of its true aesthetic qualities in the face of its brimming commercialization.

[14] The Japan Weekly Mail newspaper ran regular denigrating reviews of the magazine's reproduction and writing quality[15] and Bing's understanding of Japanese history and society.

[9] Gabriel P. Weisberg has asserted that Artistic Japan was a major force in solidifying the valued position Japanese art was to have in the West.