Imre Jakabffy (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 3. (Budapest, 1975)
FERENCZY, László: Traditions and new trends in the Japanese art of the Meiji era
is a pavilion in the garden, in the back there is a cock and a hen, inlaid in several soft shades of gold. The porcelains and ceramics of the Meiji era being represented pretty richly were shown in three groups. The first group includes w r ares made in traditional centres working mostly for export already in the Tokugawa era like Arita, Kutani, Kyoto, Satsuma. Although most of these stonewares and porcelains were meant to be exported, several pieces are outstanding by their technique or decoration. Here belong pieces made for European exhibitions, among them an angular, covered incense box, going back in its form to China. In the second group there are porcelains nearer to Japanese taste and of more individual character. Remarkable among them is a large-size blue and white porcelain brush holder, with a harmoniously divided pattern of plum flower and leaf decoration made by Kanzan Denshichi, considered as one of the best potter of the Kyoto-Kiyomizu school in the first half of the Meiji era. (Figure 6). A new style is represented by the porcelain figure of a young girl sitting on a log, with her basket put down on the ground (Figure 7). The figure bears an imprinted mark of Makuzu and must have been made about 1900. The late descendants of the Miyagawa ceramist family of Kyoto share a past going back to the 16th century. From 1851 on they changed their name and signature to Makuzu after Makuzu Hara of Kyoto, where Chozo Miyagawa representing the tenth generation, moved to live. 18 The figure is to all probability the work of Kozan Miyagawa (1842—1910) who used to make ceramic statuettes, too. Another piece bearing Kozan Miyagawa's mark is a small sang de boeuf glazed vase, with an engraved dragon on the body. Kozan Miyagawa and his son worked at the kiln opened in Ota, near Yokohama in 1871. They got inspiration from the style of the Ch'ing period, making use of Yungcheng type plain glazed Chinese porcelain. 1 * Hozan of Kyoto came also from an old family of ceramists. The body of his cylindrical brush holder is of brownish-red stoneware reminding of the bizen yaki. It is decorated with the representation of Kanzan and Jittoku in bas-relief. The heads of the two figures have been left without glazing and the expressive features were marked by carving. There is little coloured glazing on the garments and the scroll is kept in white glaze. Special attention must be paid to the small porcelain vases from the early 20th century collected by dr. Ottó Fettick. The best part of his collection conies from the 1911 Japanese exhibition in Budapest. They are of very good taste, the decorations kept in pale blue, green and violet appear modern and display some European influence. Outstanding among them is Tozan's white jaorcelain vase, a veritable unique masterpiece (Figure 8). Against the background of the slightly cream coloured base the white decoration in relief is made up of white six-petal flowers and of leaves, the pattern running all around the vase's body. At the bottom of the vase there is the signature: "Tözan sei-sei"- (made with great care). Ito Tözan was the leading ceramist of the middle part of the Meiji era. 20 As a parallel to this vase Seifu Yohei's white vase may be mentioned. 21 The third group of porcelains consists of pieces of factory-made dinner sets, produced by western methods, mostly upon foreign orders. Manufactured with high workmanship, these plates, cups, etc. were decorated with stereotyped patterns. Also early 20th century very thin-walled porcelain sakazukis make part of this group. Lacquer art could regain its balance after its fall-back caused by the great changes in the early Meiji era and aimed more at the keeping up of high technical level. The
