An important cloisonné enamel vase | Inlaid silver wire mark of the Namikawa Sosuke (1847-1910) workshop | Meiji period, late 19th century

Namikawa Sosuke (1847–1910) was one of the most important cloisonné promoters of the later Meiji period. Sosuke originally worked with the Nagoya Cloisonné Company (Shippo Kaisha) but in 1880 moved to run the company branch in Tokyo. In 1883 he took over the company and continued to innovate and promote his company’s enamel wares. He was appointed Imperial Craftsman (Teishitsu Gigei-in) in 1896.

Sosuke was an active contributor to both national and international expositions and he and his companies won prizes at the 1883 Amsterdam Universal Exposition, the 1885 Nuremberg International Metalwork Exhibition and the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle. At the World’s Columbian Exhibition of 1893, he exhibited Mount Fuji among the Clouds, a large plaque in wireless shaded enamels; this subject was reworked by Sosuke in a number of versions and was copied by other manufacturers. It was at about this time that Sosuke, a man who did not shy to tell the world about his achievements, began to use the character ‘sakigake’ (meaning ‘pioneer’) as a seal on his work.

He employed Jinsuke and Jinkuro, the sons of Tsukamoto Kaisuke (1828 – 87) one of the cloisonné makers responsible for the renaissance of the craft and who shared his expertise widely, and thanks to their technical expertise Sosuke perfected a distinctive style of decoration in which his enamels appeared to reproduce ink paintings. The two techniques he used, shosen and musen, depended on enamels that would not bleed into each other when not separated by wires. Previously many cloisonné examples used extensive wires to create cloisons to retain the enamels. In the case of shosen (few, or limited wires) the number of wires was kept to a minimum and they were used only to delineate small details, while in musen (literally ‘no wires’) the wires were removed prior to the final firing.

This superb vase shows the use of yusen (wired) and shosen wires, the chrysanthemums have graduated enamel (bokashi) leaves, another technique that Sosuke laid claim to having invented, and float on a graduated blue background. The base bears the sakigake mark of his workshop.