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

Reference URL

Actions

Send e-mail

Contact us about this object

Send e-mail

Send to a friend

Box with plaque depicting a duck swimming past reeds

  • Literature notes

    Soft metal plaque with a duck swimming past reeds. Set into the lid of a plain black lacquer box. Engraved signature: Ikkokusai.

    Kajima Ikkokku II (1846-1925), who worked in Tōkyō, was the eldest son of Ikkoku I (c. 1820-1882) and was called the Mitsutaka until his father’s death, when he inherited the name. His gō was Ikkokusai. He won a Certificate of Merit at the Third National Industrial Exposition of 1890 and exhibited both at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904 and the Japan-British Exposition in 1910 where his work was illustrated in the catalogue, no. 199, a vase with nunome decoration, and no. 200, a double-fan-shaped incense box.

    This miniature was purchased in Japan by Sir Herbert Ingram on his honeymoon in 1908, for 30 yen, as ‘box in metal design by Watanabe’. This refers to the artist Watanabe Seitei who supplied designs for several artists or companies, most notably the cloisonné company of Namikawa Sōsuke [see EA2000.50, EA1994.35 and EA1990.4]. The image here is quite consistent with his style, and even without the documentation, would have been attributed to Seitei. Ingram was a major benefactor of the Ashmolean and the high quality of his Japanese collections has been overshadowed by his remarkable Chinese collections, given in 1956.
  • Details

    Associated place
    Asia Japan (place of creation)
    Date
    probably before 1908
    Meiji Period (1868 - 1912)
    Artist/maker
    Kajima Ikkoku II (1846 - 1925) (engraver)
    after Watanabe Seitei (1851 - 1918) (artist)
    Material and technique
    wood, covered in black lacquer, inset with metal plaque inlaid with mixed metals and with incised decoration; nashiji lacquer decoration inside
    Dimensions
    4.2 x 8.7 x 10.3 cm (height x width x depth)
    Material index
    organicvegetal wood,
    organicvegetalresin lacquer,
    Technique index
    Object type index
    container box,
    No. of items
    2
    Credit line
    Presented by Sir Herbert Ingram, 1956.
    Accession no.
    EA1956.1787
  • Further reading

    Impey, Oliver, and Joyce Seaman, Japanese Decorative Arts of the Meiji Period 1868-1912, Ashmolean Handbooks (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2005), no. 29 on p. 62, p. 8, illus. pp. 62-63

    Impey, Oliver, ‘Reflections upon the Arts and Crafts of Meiji Period Japan with Reference to the Collection of the Ashmolean Museum’, Oriental Art, 42/3, (Autumn 1996), p. 17, illus. p. 17 fig. 18

    Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 9 November 2012-27 January 2013, Threads of Silk and Gold: Ornamental Textiles from Meiji Japan, Clare Pollard, ed. (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2012), fig. 81 p. 100

Glossary (2)

lacquer, nashiji

  • lacquer

    Chinese and Japanese lacquer is made from the sap of the lacquer tree, which is indigenous to Eastern China. It is applied to wood as a varnish or for decorative effect. In India and the Middle East, lacquer is made from the deposit of the lac insect.

  • nashiji

    (‘pear skin ground’) tiny, irregularly shaped flakes of gold embedded in amber coloured wet lacquer and then polished to a fine sheen

Past Exhibition

see (1)

Location

    • currently in research collection

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

    Soft metal plaque with a duck swimming past reeds. Set into the lid of a plain black lacquer box. Engraved signature: Ikkokusai.

    Kajima Ikkokku II (1846-1925), who worked in Tōkyō, was the eldest son of Ikkoku I (c. 1820-1882) and was called the Mitsutaka until his father’s death, when he inherited the name. His gō was Ikkokusai. He won a Certificate of Merit at the Third National Industrial Exposition of 1890 and exhibited both at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904 and the Japan-British Exposition in 1910 where his work was illustrated in the catalogue, no. 199, a vase with nunome decoration, and no. 200, a double-fan-shaped incense box.

    This miniature was purchased in Japan by Sir Herbert Ingram on his honeymoon in 1908, for 30 yen, as ‘box in metal design by Watanabe’. This refers to the artist Watanabe Seitei who supplied designs for several artists or companies, most notably the cloisonné company of Namikawa Sōsuke [see EA2000.50, EA1994.35 and EA1990.4]. The image here is quite consistent with his style, and even without the documentation, would have been attributed to Seitei. Ingram was a major benefactor of the Ashmolean and the high quality of his Japanese collections has been overshadowed by his remarkable Chinese collections, given in 1956.
Notice

Object information may not accurately reflect the actual contents of the original publication, since our online objects contain current information held in our collections database. Click on 'buy this publication' to purchase printed versions of our online publications, where available, or contact the Jameel Study Centre to arrange access to books on our collections that are now out of print.

© 2013 University of Oxford - Ashmolean Museum