Japanese Enamels: the Seven Treasures

14 June 2011 - 19 August 2012

Vase, Tokyo, seal of Namikawa Sosuke, about 1900. Museum no. FE.58:1-2011

Room 45: Japan
Free admission

Following the ‘reopening’ of the country in the late 1850s, the art of cloisonné enamelling became one of the Japan’s most successful forms of manufacture and export. This display of over one hundred and twenty objects ranges from elegant inlaid metalwork of the late 17th century through the Golden Age and into the 20th century. Objects include examples from the renaissance of Japanese enamelling in the 1840s; the experimental works of the 1850s and 1860s by master artists such as Hayashi Kodenji, Namikawa Yasuyuki of Kyoto, Namikawa Sosuke of Tokyo and the output of the creative and prolific Ando Cloisonné Company of Nagoya.

The V&A’s historical collection combined with the Edwin Davies Gift of cloisonné enamels enables us to present a rounded picture of one of Japan’s most exquisite art forms.

The V&A is very grateful to Edwin Davies OBE for his significant gift of Japanese cloisonné enamels and his further generous support.