Capturing a “moment in time,” the Stephen W. Fisher Collection of Japanese cloisonné enamels differs from many collections in that it does not seek to represent the breadth and depth of an art form. Instead, it brings into sharp focus a period of roughly 40 years around the turn of the Twentieth Century during Japan’s “Golden Age” of decorative arts production, a movement fully backed by the Meiji government, which saw the arts as a way of securing Japan’s footing on the world stage.
At the turn of the century, the refined style of ancient Chinese cloisonné was being transformed in innovative ways in workshops in the cities of Nagoya, Tokyo and Kyoto, where exquisite, brilliantly colored enamel works of art were being created by master artisans such as Namikawa Yasuyuki, Ando Jubei, Namikawa Sosuke and Hattori Tadasaburo.
“Japanese Cloisonné Enamels from the Stephen W. Fisher Collection,” on view though June 13 at the Walters Art Museum, presents nearly 130 sublime works from the collection. The exhibition includes intricate vases, urns, boxes and trays that have been worked in gold, silver and colored enamels.
Of the exhibition’s genesis, its curator Robert Mintz said, “It was an opportunity to look at a moment in time and explore how different artists acted at the time in this medium and explore what the medium could do.” Mintz is the museum’s associate curator of Asian arts, a collection that exceeds 10,000 objects.
The collection has been evolving ever since Fisher picked up his first piece of cloisonné, a colorful toothpick holder, at a tag sale 40-some years ago. Still in the collection today, that lone item ignited Fisher’s passion for cloisonné and so began a life pursuit. Since then, his collection has been honed to include only the most artistic and masterful examples from the brief period when cloisonné enamels were in their heyday, an era cut short by Japan turning its attentions to dominating Asia and war erupting overseas. Japan’s war efforts severely limited the availability of copper, which was the foundation for most cloisonné enamels.
Cloisonné has been around since ancient Rome and Greece, and the Walters has quite a collection of Russian and French enamels and a growing assortment of Japanese enamels, thanks to the generosity of Fisher, who has gifted pieces to the museum over the years. Cloisonné was relatively rare in premodern Japan, but soon became a symbol of Modernism and equated with the best of Japanese design. “The works selected for this exhibition were produced at the very peak of innovation and creativity for this art form,” Mintz said. “With the feudal control of the Tokugawa shogunate gradually losing its grip on society and seaports opening to foreign trade at the beginning of the Meiji period [1868‱912], Japanese enamelists pushed the limits of their craft both domestically and internationally to much acclaim.”
When choosing examples for the exhibition, Mintz focused on quality and craftsmanship.
Tadasaburo is one of the artists whom Mintz elected to display every example that Fisher owns. “There are not that many in the collection but they are extraordinary,” Mintz said.
Japan’s Meiji period was a time of great change, and ceramic production centers that catered to domestic and Western markets stepped up their game as new, international markets opened for Japanese products.
As Japan began showing its enamels on the international stage at expositions in Vienna, Paris, London, Chicago, Philadelphia, St Louis and San Francisco, a cross-pollination of ideas began to flow from East to West and West to East. A perfect example can be found in two of Tadasaburo’s vases in the exhibition, one that flares out at the lip and is decorated with calla lilies, the other a double gourd vase adorned with camellias.
“In both cases, they are so closely associated with the kinds of design ideas inspiring the makers of Art Nouveau French design,” Mintz said. “Even the surfaces echo elements of the Arts and Crafts movement. They look very rough, they have a very deliberate handmade appearance. They are, of course, not rough, but very refined. This was something that was very important to European designers at the moment.”
Meanwhile in Europe, artists such as Emile Galle and Camille Faure began creating works that show a form of Japanese imagery that they adapted to Western tastes.
Cloisonné as fine art really began in the 1830s, when Kaji Tsunekichi, who lived in Toshima, began studying enameling. His connection with a samurai family attached to the Owari daimyo that ruled around Nagoya, Japan, afforded him ready access to Chinese cloisonné examples to model his works after.
Owari cloisonné took its name from its origins in this province and is both the first and longest-running of the Nineteenth Century Japanese enameling traditions. Tsunekichi soon mastered a technique of producing cloisonné based on the Chinese method, but had made several key modifications that clearly marked his work as Japanese. Eliminating the metal solder that the Chinese used to separate enamel areas when affixing metal wires to the piece’s copper surface, Tsunekichi simply glued the gold, bronze and silver strips in place, realizing the enamel, once hardened, would hold the strips in place.
“Eliminating the solder from the cloisonné resulted in fewer discolorations in the enamel and fewer faults caused by bubbles in the enamel surface. The result was a much cleaner, flatter product that would become a new standard for Japanese artists,” according to Mintz in his catalog essay.
By 1871, this cottage industry was blossoming and several companies working in the Owari style, supervised by first-generation artists, opened. The Nagoya Cloisonné Company set up shop near the site of Tsunekichi’s original studio, an event that delineated the beginning of large-scale production of Japanese cloisonné. The Kanagawa Cloisonné Company soon opened south of Tokyo.
An artist central to the exhibition is Ando Jubei, who formed the Ando Cloisonné Company and began production in Nagoya. His tripod incense burner decorated with Japanese sweetfish, on view in the exhibition, evinces the company’s aesthetic. This company is the only remaining Meiji-era Japanese cloisonné production studio that still produces enamels today. Among the important techniques the company advanced was one called moriage (piling up), in which enamel layers are painstakingly built up to create a relief effect.
Working in competition with the Ando Cloisonné Company, Tadasaburo and his artisans were renowned for creating a distinct style inspired by nature.
Another prominent artist in the exhibition, Namikawa Sosuke came out of the Owari tradition, whose work delights in the artistic possibilities that the use of “wireless” cloisonné opened up. He is credited with helping raise cloisonné enamel to fine art. The painterly effects this technique enabled can be seen in his pair of vases decorated with ducks among snowy reeds.
Namikawa Yasuyuki worked in the city of Kyoto, known for its stylish yet conservative style of decoration. His pieces exhibit refined workmanship and lush decorative schemes. While his works were thematically restrained, his use of sculpted wires to highlight his designs reveals his mastery of cloisonné techniques and a willingness to innovate, as seen in his incense burner decorated with hydrangea.
“I think where this collection dovetails with the museum is &†with the museum’s extensive holdings in French and Russian enamels and some ancient enamels,” Mintz said. “The Fisher collection begins to round out the museum’s ability to tell the story of the use of enamel throughout human history as a decorative medium.”
The collection, which was on view in an earlier edition at the Walters 20 years ago featuring just 70 pieces, has not been promised to the museum, as Fisher is still actively collecting and honing his collection. Museum visitors can delight in the collection while it is on view, though.
“Viewing the collection now, some 40 years after its casual beginnings, I am surprised at how a whim became a hobby and then a life pursuit,” says Fisher in the catalog. “Although somehow ‘finished’ at the moment it is viewed, no collection is ever truly complete; nor is this one. Perhaps a new treasure lurks around the corner to enhance the whole, to extend the dream.”
A 144-page catalog was produced to accompany the exhibition and includes essays by Mintz as well as Fisher. It is available for $37 from the Walters museum shop.
The Walters Art Museum is at 600 North Charles Street. For information, 410-547-9000 or w ww.thewalters.org .
