Namikawa Yasuyuki — original family nameTakaoka — was a Japanese cloisonné artist. His work was highly sought after in his own lifetime and is held in several collections today. He and Namikawa Sōsuke were the most famous cloisonné artists of the 1890 to 1910 period, known as the "Golden age" of Japanese enamels. From 1875 to 1915, he won prizes at 51 exhibitions, including at world's fairs and at Japan's National Industrial Exhibition. For his work he was appointed an Imperial Household Artist in 1896. He sometimes signed his pieces Kyoto Namikawa.
Biography
A former samurai, Namikawa Yasuyuki started work as an artist around 1868, working for the Kyoto Cloisonné Company from 1871 to 1874 and eventually forming his own company. He gave tours of his workshop; one visitor was the English writer Rudyard Kipling. These tours began in a garden to introduce Japanese aesthetics, and Namikawa would show the many stages of his production process, including fourteen polishing stones of different roughness that were used in sequence. Along with Namikawa Sōsuke, he was one of only two cloisonné artists ever to be appointed Imperial Household Artist. These artists were given a yearly stipend and were commissioned by the Imperial family to make presentation wares as gifts for foreign dignitaries. After the Meiji era, foreign demand for Japanese art tailed off. Namikawa Yasuyuki retired in 1919 and his workshop closed in 1923.
Style
The collector Donald Gerber distinguishes three schools of Japanese cloisonné and places Namikawa at the head of the Kyoto, or naturalistic, school. He invented the first transparent black glaze, which led to the development of other transparent enamels. He used intricate wire work and is known for attention to detail. His early work used geometrical motifs or stylised representations of plants. His style became more pictorial over his career, usually depicting Kyoto's landmarks. He also worked with larger and more varied vases. Colourful figures on a yellow ground are one of his identifying marks. His style was shaped by his contact with Gottfried Wagener, a German scientist brought to Japan by the government to help modernise Japanese industry. Together they developed a semi-transparent mirror black enamel that became a hallmark of Namikawa's work. By 1893 Namikawa had learned to hide background wires, creating solid areas of enamel. Judges at Japan's fourth National Industrial Exhibition in 1895 remarked on Namikawa's change of stylistic approach when awarding him first prize:
"ere flowers of the four seasons, with birds of exquisite coloring, are set on to a black background color, forming a picture far beyond a mere pattern. But he seems still to adhere to the traditional methods of depiction, not attempting to imitate brushwork as do some other persons. He places great emphasis on fine wirework and on a flawless surface with no pitting or bubbles, achieved through painstaking study of glazing and firing."
At the National Industrial Exhibition of 1881, Namikawa was awarded second prize for a copper vase "of elegant shape with opaque and transparent colors and complicated wire-work, with no trace of cracks."
