History of cloisonné in Japan 1871 - today

Monument at Shippōyaki Tōshima, erected in 1895. Shippo yaki gensanchi, Takaramura no uchi Tōshima ('The original place of manufacture of shippō: Tōshima in the village of Takaramura'). Photograph © Gregory Irvine.

In 1871 the Nagoya Cloisonné Company was established at Toshima. Their technological advances resulted in the company winning a first prize at the Vienna Exhibition of 1873.

Many cloisonné-manufacturing companies sprang up in and around Tōshima and the area rapidly became Japan’s main centre of cloisonné production becoming known as Shippō-chō (Cloisonné town). It has been estimated that at its peak the cloisonné manufactories of Tōshima were producing seventy percent of all cloisonné enamels in Japan.

By 1875, Kaisuke had left Nagoya to become the chief foreman of the Ahrens Company in Tokyo. Ahrens was one of many companies set up under the Meiji government’s programme whereby western specialists were invited to help modernise Japan’s existing industries.

The chief technologist of Ahrens, which had exhibited one of Kaisuke’s works at the Vienna Exhibition, was the German chemist Gottfried Wagener who introduced modern European enamelling technology to Japan.

Group of lidded vases, Namikawa Yasuyuki, Japan, c.1880-90. Although these three vases do not constitute a set as such, the designs on one side are so similar in terms of colour scheme and layout that they have been grouped together. Museum nos, FE.60:1&2-2011, FE.61:1 to 4-2011. Edwin Davies Gift.

In 1878 Wagener moved to Kyoto where he met the former samurai and cloisonné artist Namikawa Yasuyuki (1845-1927). Yasuyuki began his career around 1868 and worked with the Kyoto Cloisonné Company from 1871 to 1874.

He established his own studio and exhibited his work at national and international expositions. The most significant result of the collaboration of Wagener and Yasuyuki was the creation of the semi-transparent mirror black enamel that became the hallmark of most of Yasuyuki’s subsequent work.

Yasuyuki’s cloisonné enamels are characterised by the skilful use of intricate wirework and superb attention to detail and the designs on his earlier pieces are relatively traditional, consisting mainly of stylised botanical and formal geometric motifs. Much of his later work tends to be more pictorial with scenes from nature and views of landmarks in and around Kyoto.

Yasuyuki continued to improve his technical and artistic skills and in 1896 he was appointed Teishitsu Gigei’in (Imperial Craftsman) to the court of the Emperor Meiji. This was an important position and guaranteed a domestic market for his work while simultaneously increasing its value and price. He retired in 1915 and his company closed soon afterwards.

Dish by Namikawa Sosuke, Japan, about 1895. The copper body of the dish, whose shape is reminiscent of the Japanese uchiwa fan, has an applied gilt-copper rim. The design of the birds is in a combination of gold and silver yūsen and shōsen enamels. Collection of Edwin Davies OBE

Namikawa Sōsuke (1847-1910) was another important cloisonné artist and was also appointed Imperial Craftsman to the court of the Emperor Meiji in 1896. To the confusion of western visitors to Japan, Sōsuke and Yasuyuki were unrelated, the family name ‘Namikawa’ being written with different characters.

Sōsuke originally worked for the Nagoya Cloisonné Company but moved to run their branch in Tokyo. He contributed to national and international expositions and perfected a distinctive style of decoration in which his enamelled designs gave the appearance of reproductions of ink paintings. Around 1893 Sōsuke, a man not shy to tell the world about his achievements, began to use the ‘sakigake’ (pioneer) seal on his work; there is no doubt that he had raised Japanese enamelling skills to new and truly remarkable heights.

The most important company producing cloisonné enamels in Nagoya and the surrounding area was the Andō Company. Its foreman from 1881 to 1897 was Kaji Satarō, the grandson of Kaji Tsunekichi who was succeeded by Kawade Shibatarō (1856 – c.1921). Kawade introduced and developed many technical innovations on which the Andō Company’s success was based, the most important of which is called moriage (piling-up). This painstaking technique involved building up layers of enamel to produce a three-dimensional effect and was ideally suited to natural subjects such as plants and flowers.

Vase decorated with persimmon fruit, Andō Company, Japan, 1912-1926. Collection © of Edwin Davies OBE

The Andō Company developed the technique called plique-a-jour (shōtai-jippō in Japanese). Andō Jūbei had seen examples of this at the Paris Exposition of 1900 and brought back with him a piece by Fernand Thesmar. This was analysed by Kawade, who perfected and further developed the technique. In shōtai-jippō an object is prepared as for cloisonné enamelling, though with the wires being fixed only by glue. The interior is not enamelled and once the piece has been completed clear lacquer is applied to its polished exterior to protect it from the acid which is used to dissolve the copper body. The resulting fragile object consists of semi-transparent panels of enamel held together by a pattern of fine wires.

The Andō Company won many prizes at world exhibitions and around 1900 was appointed by the Imperial Household as official supplier of cloisonné objects for imperial gifts. The Andō Company is unique in that it is the only manufacturer with its roots in the Golden Age still producing high quality cloisonné enamels.

Until its closure in the 1990s, the Inaba Company of Kyoto was another important survivor of the Golden Age. Founded in 1886 by Inaba Isshin, a former samurai who began working in enamels in 1875, the company’s output was eclectic and combined designs and techniques used by both Kyoto and Nagoya makers.

Chrysanthemum vase, Nagoya. Museum no. M.206-1917

Andō Company label

Pair of vases, Andō Company. Museum nos. FE.20:1&3-2011

The third and fourth generation heads of the family still live in Kyoto and are invaluable sources of information about the history of cloisonné making in Japan.

Following the recent demolition of their workshop (the site is now a parking lot) their archives, together with tools and enamelling materials, are preserved in the Museum of Kyoto.