Kakiemon elephants (British Museum)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Kakiemon elephants
on display in the museum
Materialporcelain
SizeHeight: 35.5 cm
Width: 44 cm
Length: 14.5 cm
Created1660-1690 Edo period
PlaceArita, Japan
Present locationRoom 92-94, British Museum, London
Identification766883
Registration1980,0325.1-2

The Kakiemon elephants are a pair of 17th century

Kyūshū at a time when elephants would not have been seen in Japan.[2]

Description

The figures are largely based on Asian elephants but differ slightly in some details. Like Dürer's Rhinoceros this is art based on the best information available. The artists who made these figures had never seen a real elephant and had to work from drawings and sketches; possibly from Buddhist sources.[3] They are made from enamelled porcelain, which would have been a new technology in Japan at the time they were made. Each elephant is 35.5 cm high, 44 cm long and 14.5 cm wide. The novel near-white glaze which is called 'nigoshide' was developed in this Japanese pottery in the seventeenth century.[4] 'Nigoshide' is known for its whiteness and is named after the residue that is left after washing rice.[5] The white ground is decorated with the additional characteristic coloured glazes of red, green, yellow and blue.[2]

Provenance

A detailed picture of one of the elephants

These ceramics came from the pottery of

James I and the shōgun Tokugawa Hidetada
but the initiative was abandoned in 1623.

The elephants are now in the British Museum, as part of the collection donated by Sir Harry Garner.

Importance

The emergence of enamelled porcelain near Arita in Kyushu began Kakiemon-style decoration in overglazed coloured enamels. The success of the Japanese was due to the disruption of the Chinese

Ming Dynasty and the Qing dynasty. In this brief period Chinese export porcelain largely dried up, and Japanese potters stepped in to fill the gap, including Kakiemon's new technique and style. These elephants are thought to have been made in 1660 to 1690. They would have been made by casting into moulds and the remains of broken elephant shaped moulds have been found in modern excavations at Arita.[3] Meissen porcelain, which was developed in the 18th century, is considered to have been strongly influenced by the Kakiemon Japanese imports.[4]

The milk-white glaze called 'nigoshide', developed by Kakiemon, was out of use by the end of the Edo period. However the technique was rediscovered in 1953 by Sakaida Kakiemon XII (1878–1963) and Sakaida Kakiemon XIII (1906–1982) and was declared a Japanese "Important Intangible Cultural Asset" in 1971. Kakiemon porcelain continued to be made under Sakaida Kakiemon XIV until his death in June 2013.[5]

There are few artefacts like this pair of elephants extant although there is a similar elephant (c.1680) in the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands and another in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.[3]

A History of the World in 100 Objects

This sculpture was featured in A History of the World in 100 Objects, a series of radio programmes that started in 2010 as a collaboration between the BBC and the British Museum.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b Japan: Its History, Arts and Literature. Volume 8 Archived 2011-07-24 at the Wayback Machine, Frank Brinkley, p.112, accessed September 2010
  2. ^ a b Kakiemon elephants, British Museum, accessed 6 September 2010
  3. ^ a b c Object of the Month November Archived 2011-07-24 at the Wayback Machine, Groningen Museum, accessed 6 September 2010
  4. ^ a b Japan encyclopedia by Louis Frédéric p.455, accessed 6 September 2010
  5. ^ a b Kakiemon Sakaida, ExploreJapaneseCeramics, accessed 7 September 2010
  6. ^ A History of the World in 100 Objects, BBC. accessed 5 September 2010


Preceded by A History of the World in 100 Objects
Object 79 		Succeeded by
80:
Pieces of eight
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