Imre Jakabffy (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 3. (Budapest, 1975)

FERENCZY, László: Traditions and new trends in the Japanese art of the Meiji era

S. ITOTOZAN: PORCELAIN VASE. EARLY 20TH CENTURY. liiramakie. The master (1821—1889) was a remarkable artist well known for his ceramics in Kenzan's style, but he made also inlaid lacquers in the style of Ritsuö. The cloisonné enamel technique and its patterns came from China and were adapted first in copies and later, beginning with the mid 19th century, as a characteristically Japanese art, independent both in technique and decoration. Complying with growing exporation demands, the number of cloisonne-decorated objects was increasing and they never failed to score success atEuropean exhibitions.

24 In our exhibition, in which mainly pieces with flower and bird pictures made in the conventional style of Kyoto were prevailing, we had also some outstanding pieces in modern style to show, too. The first place is taken undoubtedly by the 1900 Paris Fair Gold-Price bearer vase decorated with a snow-covered plum tree in blossom, against a grey and white background (Figure 10). True to Japanese innovations the cloisons are not visible on the body of the vase, as they had been removed probably after the first firing (musen-shippo technique). In the decoration very little white, pink, yellow and green are applied in good harmony with each other. The vase does not wear the name of the maker, only the fourbranched emblem of the Ando cloisonné workshop in Nagoya, used up to this day is to be found at the bottom of the vase. The Nagoya workshop and some of the Tokyo masters abandoning the traditional Kyoto style aimed at a picturesque effect in their cloisonné enamels. They developed enamel techniques in which cloisons are concealed or fully abandoned. A good example of this style was a largesize decorative vase adorned with birds of rich colouring. In this case, however, the bodies of the birds were accentuated also by embossing. The technical novelties of the period were represented by two porcelains with cloisonné enamel decoration. One of them is a hyotanshaped saké bottle signed by the Shippo Company, the other one a large-sized vase with a rich decoration of stylized foliation against the ochre base. The idea and introduction of cloisonné enamel decoration on an un-glazed porcelain comes — according to Münsterberg — from