Japanese Enamels: The Seven Treasures

• What:
  Displays
• When:
  Tue 14 June 2011 – Fri 11 November 2011
• Where:
  Japan, Room 45

DISPLAY: Combining gems from the V&A's collection with the Edwin Davies Gift of cloisonné enamels, this display presents a rounded picture of one of Japan’s most exquisite art forms. View over 120 objects dating from the late 17th to the 20th century.

The V&A collection illustrates the renaissance of Japanese enamelling in the 1840s, the experimental works of the 1850s and 1860s, the rise of master artists such as Hayashi Kodenji, Namikawa Yasuyuki of Kyoto and Namikawa Sosuke of Tokyo and the output of the creative, innovative and prolific Ando Cloisonné Company of Nagoya. Mr Edwin Davies, a benefactor of the V&A and Trustee, donated a fine collection of Japanese cloisonné enamels to the Museum in January 2011. These date predominantly from the Golden Age of Japanese enamelling, c.1880-1910, when artistic and technological sophistication reached a peak. The V&A now holds the largest and most comprehensive collection of Japanese cloisonné enamels in any world museum outside the USA.