Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Japanese Decorative Arts of the Meiji Period

A catalogue of the Ashmolean’s Japanese decorative arts from the Meiji period (1868-1912), by Oliver Impey and Joyce Seaman (published Oxford, 2005).

Japanese Decorative Arts of the Meiji Period 1868-1912 by Oliver Impey and Joyce Seaman

Publications online: 54 objects

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Vase with scenes of a courtier on a horse

  • Literature notes

    One of a pair of vases in bronze and soft metals, each made in six parts. The base a flat platform on which sits a tripod stand and phoenix shaped feet, with pierced panels of drums, gourds and scrolls, with applied daikon (radish). This supports a hexagonal gallery on which rests a bulbous vase with short neck and large, flattened tray-like rim, with upright sides. Each vase bears two shaped panels on the sides containing different scenes – a courtier on a horse fording a stream, a bird on a rock beside bamboo, a courtier with two attendants and a bird flying through a bamboo grove beside rocks. On the flat surface of the rim, spools and skeins of threads with applied ‘Chinese lantern’ (Physalis) seed pods. Engraved signature within one vase: Kanamori Tokistsugu sei.

    Based on a classic flower-vase shape, this elaborate concoction, typical of the higher quality work of the Kaga metalworkers of early Meiji Japan, looks as if it was designed by a committee; it probably was. Kanamori Tokitsugu appears to be otherwise unrecorded. Almost certainly made by a small group of former sword-fitting makers, this bears decoration piled on decoration and stands on a series of extra-supporting plinths and feet, in the search for elaboration and the demonstration of skill that was the reaction of Japanese craftsmen of the time to High Victorianism. It is likely that the vases were made for one of the great International Expositions of the time, perhaps Vienna (1873), Philadelphia (1876) or Paris (1878), or but we have found no record.
  • Details

    Associated place
    AsiaJapanHonshū Kaga province (place of creation)
    Date
    1870s
    Artist/maker
    Tokitsugu Kanamori (active mid-19th century) (metalworker)
    Material and technique
    bronze, inlaid with soft metals
    Dimensions
    63 cm (height)
    35.5 cm (diameter)
    Material index
    Technique index
    formed cast,
    Object type index
    No. of items
    16
    Accession no.
    EAX.5149
  • Further reading

    Impey, Oliver, and Joyce Seaman, Japanese Decorative Arts of the Meiji Period 1868-1912, Ashmolean Handbooks (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2005), no. 24 on p. 52, p. 8, illus. pp. 52-53

Location

    • Second floor | Room 36 | Japan

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

Publications online

  • Japanese Decorative Arts of the Meiji Period 1868-1912 by Oliver Impey and Joyce Seaman

    Japanese Decorative Arts of the Meiji Period

    One of a pair of vases in bronze and soft metals, each made in six parts. The base a flat platform on which sits a tripod stand and phoenix shaped feet, with pierced panels of drums, gourds and scrolls, with applied daikon (radish). This supports a hexagonal gallery on which rests a bulbous vase with short neck and large, flattened tray-like rim, with upright sides. Each vase bears two shaped panels on the sides containing different scenes – a courtier on a horse fording a stream, a bird on a rock beside bamboo, a courtier with two attendants and a bird flying through a bamboo grove beside rocks. On the flat surface of the rim, spools and skeins of threads with applied ‘Chinese lantern’ (Physalis) seed pods. Engraved signature within one vase: Kanamori Tokistsugu sei.

    Based on a classic flower-vase shape, this elaborate concoction, typical of the higher quality work of the Kaga metalworkers of early Meiji Japan, looks as if it was designed by a committee; it probably was. Kanamori Tokitsugu appears to be otherwise unrecorded. Almost certainly made by a small group of former sword-fitting makers, this bears decoration piled on decoration and stands on a series of extra-supporting plinths and feet, in the search for elaboration and the demonstration of skill that was the reaction of Japanese craftsmen of the time to High Victorianism. It is likely that the vases were made for one of the great International Expositions of the time, perhaps Vienna (1873), Philadelphia (1876) or Paris (1878), or but we have found no record.
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