A PAIR OF CLOISONNÉ ENAMEL IMPERIAL PRESENTATION VASES

Together with Namikawa Yasuyuki, Sosuke was appointed as a Teishitsu Gigeiin (Imperial Artist) in 1896. Sosuke pioneered a pictorial style of cloisonné enameling also known as 'wireless cloisonné' in around 1879, in which the usual wires are either absent or invisible. He was able to merge different colors and shades together giving the impression of brush painting, although he also often used some wire to enhance the composition. Although Sosuke often depicted illustrations by well-known painters, such as Watanabe Seitei (1851-1918), he was a great artist in his own right. He is perhaps best known for the thirty-two cloisonné plaques for the audience room of the Geihinkan (formerly the Akasaka Detached Palace) that he completed shortly before his death after ten years work.
This type of vases with chrysanthemum crests of the Imperial Household were often presented from the Emperor or Imperial Household as an Imperial Gift during the Meiji period. For a pair of presentation vases by the same artist with an identical design in the Khalili collection, see Enamel, vol. 3 of Meiji no Takara/Treasures of Imperial Japan: The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Japanese Art, Oliver Impey and Malcolm Fairley, gen. eds. (London: The Kibo Foundation, 1995), no. 88.