Audio (English): An impressive collaborative pair of bronze and mixed-metal vases representing spring and autumn

Audio (Japanese): An impressive collaborative pair of bronze and mixed-metal vases representing spring and autumn

An impressive collaborative pair of bronze and mixed-metal vases representing spring and autumn

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THE ARTISTIC GENIUS OF MEIJI JAPAN Victor Harris The art of the Meiji period (1868-1912), as exemplified in this discrete but excellent selection of various forms of decorative arts, is the flower of the Japanese manufacturing tradition. There is no doubt that Meiji art is extraordinary, but how and why did this come about? Some Meiji art is exciting and innovative, while some is technically excellent but rather old hat. It has been said that the Japanese have no talent for originality, and that their industrial successes of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries are due largely to the ability and willingness to copy overseas technology. This might be so to a certain extent, but the act of copying is a most vital and basic ingredient of all life, both animate and inanimate, and as such it should not be taken lightly. Indeed, it is surely the aspect of learning by copying that has nurtured all world cultures, and it is tradition that has ensured the continuation and development of skills whereby the apprentice becomes man and then master of his craft. Tradition in the arts and crafts is essentially the repetition of ancient practices under the watchful eye of the previous generation. And Japan gives us a well-documented story of her ancient traditions perpetuated over at least the past thousand years under the guiding hand of the indigenous nature religion, Shinto. Shinto The predominant precepts of Shinto include a respect for nature and materials, cleanliness and repetitive seasonal activities, all of which----well-established in Japan over a thousand years ago----are regarded as essential components of the present-day Green movement. Central to Shinto is the seasonal regeneration of the environment. This entails the periodic rebuilding of shrines and of their contents----artifacts made for the daily use of the Gods. Thus, the Grand Shrine of Ise, which houses the Sun Goddess, and all the objects required for her everyday life----clothing, furniture, weapons, musical instruments and so on----have been made anew every twenty years since the first records of Japanese history. This requires each generation to pass on the necessary skills of manufacture in the several crafts of building, textiles, metalwork, lacquer, sword-making and the like. It naturally takes the twenty years between each rebuilding for a craftsman to communicate his skills to his successor. The passing on of skills from generation to generation by making exact copies was the essence of all Japanese manufacturing traditions up to the Meiji Restoration. Shinto was restored as the national religion with the emperor as a deity at its head; with its respect for manufacturing tradition, Shinto was at the forefront of all Japanese activity. The ancient craft traditions as nursed by Shinto were at the heart of Japanese industry, and in this lay the artistic genius of Meiji-period Japan. Before the Meiji Restoration Prior to the Meiji Restoration, the nation had been governed for several centuries by samurai under a ruling shogun of the Tokugawa clan. Japan was closed to international trade between 1639 and 1854, save for limited Dutch and Chinese activity strictly controlled in Nagasaki. Provincial feudal lords sponsored arts and crafts in their own provinces, so that traditional schools grew and were nurtured over the two and a half centuries of international isolation. Independent schools providing for the burgeoning mercantile classes also sprang up in the larger towns and cities. These various traditions of arts and crafts were to provide the basis of the world-wide export of technically perfect and artistically innovative ornamental tours-de-force in the decades following the Meiji Restoration. But the Tokugawa clan was by no means unenlightened; it had already instituted movements towards the eventual Westernization of the country well before the Restoration. In 1858, for example, the shogun established a trading center in Yokohama to promote the export of lacquerware from Kanazawa, Shizuoka, Aizu and Kurume. And, in 1867, Japan sent two separate delegations to the International Exposition in Paris. One was a government group ostensibly overseen by the fourteen-year-old brother of the shogun, Tokugawa Aritake, and the other a team of potters from Saga province, who brought with them Arita porcelain (which had already been exported independently through the shipping agencies of China and the Low Countries since the early seventeenth century). The government delegation took with them over thirteen hundred objects of everyday use, including samurai arms and armor, hoping to impress with the quality of traditional goods. This early experience of an international fair led to Japan's participation in practically every subsequent great world exposition. Following the Restoration Following the restoration of the emperor, the nation embarked on an ambitious program of Westernization and industrialization, and was soon set up with railways, a telephone system, a thriving shipbuilding industry, Western fashions, a modern education system and large-scale adoption of the technologies of the Industrial Revolution. Japan soon delighted the West with exports of fine arts and crafts based largely on traditional skills, and with fresh designs in line with Western taste. Feedback from Japanese agents at the series of great international expositions during the latter part of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries resulted in a fertile interchange of ideas, and led to the emergence of the Art Nouveau movement, which owed so much to traditional Japanese design concepts. Advances in art went hand in hand with advances in industry. Mining techniques were revolutionized with new pumping systems, so that essential minerals----particularly coal----could be traded on an international scale. In 1870, the Department for Industry (Kobusho) was established to develop the arts and crafts for export, and in 1884, a faculty of engineering was set up at Tokyo University. More significantly, the Tokyo School of Fine Arts was established in 1887 to foster the arts and crafts in a national ambience in place of the old provincial studios. A series of Domestic Industrial Exhibitions was instituted with prizes awarded to invite competition. Companies like Inoue, Nogawa (lots 119-120) and Ozeki employed artists and marketed their work under their own names, competing in both these and international exhibitions. Ozeki Yahei and a relative named Teijiro opened the Musashiya shop in Yokohama, selling highest quality work directly to foreign visitors. Ozeki (lot 125) sold the work of many excellent craftsmen under his own seal, sometimes also bearing the signature of the maker. He won second prize at the first Domestic Industrial Exposition and many prizes thereafter. Other companies were to export under their own marks the creations of great artists whose names have been accordingly lost in documentation; it is still possible for the discerning collector to find unsigned objects by top-class engravers. In this way, Japan worked to encourage the growth of industry based on the old manufacturing traditions. The emperor himself was foremost in promoting this growth. In 1890, a small number of the best craftsmen were selected as Imperial Craftsmen (Teishitsu Gigeiin; also, Artists to the Imperial Household) under the patronage of the Imperial Household. These craftsmen and their pupils were appointed lecturers at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts and Tokyo University, becoming beacons of near perfection in their fields. It was a high position in society, and the recipients received a salary, pension and lucrative commissions from the Imperial Household Agency. The Meiji emperor proved to be a visionary and energetic man devoted to the welfare of his country. He not only sponsored Imperial Craftsmen with commissions, but purchased works of art at Domestic Industrial Exhibitions. In 1890, at the third such exhibition, the emperor and a few exceedingly rich non-Japanese visitors bought some of the most expensive pieces. At the Japan Art Association in Kyoto shortly before that exhibition, the emperor purchased thirty-two pieces, the empress mother eighteen pieces and the Office of the Imperial Household about twenty-seven. With the agreement of the Imperial Household, the eighth-century treasure house at Todaiji Temple in Nara, the Shosoin, was opened from 1875 for some years to display annually a selection from the collection. Artists such as Unno Shomin were commissioned to conserve and copy the material, whereby the ancient Nara-period motifs were re-introduced to the public, and hence to the world. It cannot be overstated that the young emperor contributed greatly to the dissemination of fine arts and crafts while working to bring his nation socially, politically and economically onto the world stage at a time when the great nations of America, Britain, Holland, Russia, France and the newly formed Germany were reaching out to strengthen their colonial ambitions throughout the world. Victor Harris is Keeper Emeritus of Japanese Antiquities of the British Museum.

An impressive collaborative pair of bronze and mixed-metal vases representing spring and autumn

MEIJI PERIOD (DATED 1885), SPRING SIGNED ON SILVER PLAQUE BOKUSUI HYAKKA JU KAZUHIDE KOKU (CARVED BY KAZUHIDE [SATO KAZUHIDE; 1855-1925] OF THE HYAKKA [GARDEN QUARTER] IN SUMIDA WARD, TOKYO) AND WITH GILT SEAL KAZUHIDE, AUTUMN CYCLICALLY DATED AND SIGNED ON SILVER PLAQUE KINOTOTORI CHUSHU (MID-AUTUMN 1885) NEGISHI SONKO BAIRYU SHINSHINSO SEN KATSUHIRO (CARVED BY KATSUHIRO [KAGAWA KATSUHIRO; 1853-1917] OF THE BAIRYU SHINSHINSO [STUDIO] AND RESIDENT OF NEGISHI DISTRICT) AND WITH SILVER AND GILT SEAL FUYO ICHIGI

Details

An impressive collaborative pair of bronze and mixed-metal vases representing spring and autumn
Meiji period (dated 1885), Spring signed on silver plaque Bokusui Hyakka ju Kazuhide koku (carved by Kazuhide [Sato Kazuhide; 1855-1925] of the Hyakka [Garden quarter] in Sumida Ward, Tokyo) and with gilt seal Kazuhide, Autumn cyclically dated and signed on silver plaque kinototori chushu (mid-autumn 1885) Negishi sonko Bairyu Shinshinso sen Katsuhiro (carved by Katsuhiro [Kagawa Katsuhiro; 1853-1917] of the Bairyu Shinshinso [studio] and resident of Negishi district) and with silver and gilt seal Fuyo ichigi
Each vase of tapering ovoid form with high shoulder, upright neck and short foot, cast, carved and inlaid in various golds, silver, shakudo, copper and gilt, the vase representing Spring with a pair of pheasants perched on the gnarled trunk of a cherry tree by roses and two small birds; the vase representing Autumn with a pair of young pheasants perched on the gnarled trunk of a maple tree by chrysanthemums and two sparrows in flight following an insect, the feathers and flowers finely detailed, the trunks of both trees carved and chiseled to resemble the rough texture of bark, each neck cast with two phoenixes and paulownia arabesques that are repeated on each foot
23½in. (59.7cm.) high each
With removable metal liners with gilt rims (2)

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Lot Essay

This pair of large bronze vases is the collaborative work of two metal artists exhibiting in the late Meiji and Taisho periods. The cyclical date corresponding to 1885 on the Autumn vase signed by Kagawa Katsuhiro is the same year he contributed work to the international exposition in Nuremberg.

An Edo (later Tokyo) native, Katsuhiro apprenticed as a boy to a carver of Noh masks before studying drawing under Shibata Zeshin (see lots 90, 91, 94 and 95) and metalworking under Nomura Katsumori and the eminent Kano Natsuo. A frequent participant in national and international exhibitions, he was appointed a professor at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1903. Like his mentor Natsuo, Katsuhiro joined the elite membership of Artists to the Imperial Household (Teishitsu Gigeiin) in 1906, insuring him important commissions, exposure and recognition.

Sato Kazuhide became an independant metal artist in 1876, producing work for the Imperial Household and international expositions, including the Paris exposition of 1900. Also from Edo, he apprenticed under the metal masters Iwamoto Ikkan VII and Ozaki Kazuyoshi.

For mixed-metal and silver table pieces by both artists, one also a collaborative box by Kagawa Katsuhiro, see Metalwork, Parts I and II, vol. 2 of Meiji no Takara Treasures of Imperial Japan: The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Japanese Art, Oliver Impey and Malcolm Fairley, gen. eds. (London: The Kibo Foundation, 1995), pls. 9, 132 and 134.

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