MEIJI PERIOD (LATE 19TH CENTURY), SEALED SAGIKAKE (WORSHOP OF NAMIKAWA SOSUKE; 1847-1910)

Together with Namikawa Yasuyuki, Sosuke was appointed as a Teishitsu Gigeiin (Imperial Artist) in 1896. Sosuke pioneered a pictorial style of cloisonné enameling also known as "wireless cloisonné" around 1879, in which the usual wires are either absent or invisible. He was able to merge different colors and shades together giving the impression of brush painting, although he also often used some wire to enhance the composition. Although Sosuke often depicted illustrations by well-known painters, such as Watanabe Seitei (1851-1918), he was a great artist in his own right. He is well known for the thirty-two cloisonné oval panels in the Kacho no ma (Hall of Flowers and Birds) in Japan's State Guest House Akasaka Palace, images of which are accessible online.
For a pair of almost identical vases by the same artist, see Robert Mintz, Japanese Cloisonne Enamel – The Stephen W. Fisher Collection (Baltimore: The Walters Art Museum, 2010), exh. cat. pp. 62-65.