Japanese lacquerware
The invention of various maki-e techniques in Japanese history expanded artistic expression, and various tools and works of art such as inro are highly decorative.
The ornaments woven with lacquered red thread were discovered in a pit grave dating from the first half of the Initial Jōmon period.
Also, at Kakinoshima "A" Excavation Site, earthenware with a spout painted with vermilion lacquer, which was made 3200 years ago, was found almost completely intact.
[9][8] One of the masterpieces of ancient Japanese lacquer objects is the Tamamushi Shrine from middle of the seventh century AD.
While the method of drawing designs with a brush by dissolving gold powder in lacquer is a common technique in other countries, the method of drawing designs with lacquer and then sprinkling gold, silver, or copper powder of various sizes and shapes on top to polish them was developed in Japan.
Japanese lacquer was well known to Sir Thomas Roe, for example, as a suitable type of gift to the emperor Jahangir, and he notes in 1616 that rarities from China and Japan were highly desirable in India.
It is well documented that the Yongzheng Emperor had a formidable interest in Japanese lacquer, yangqi, and this was reflected in many of the works produced in the Imperial workshops during his reign.
Japanese lacquerware attracted European aristocrats and missionaries from Europe, and western style chests and church furniture were exported in response to their requests.
[26][27] Marie Antoinette and Maria Theresa are known collectors of Japanese lacquerware and their collections are now often exhibited in the Louvre and the Palace of Versailles.
[29] The appeal of his highly original style was in the choice of motifs and subject matter rather than embedded gold and silver.
[30] Other notable lacquer artists of the 19th century include Nakayama Komin and Shirayama Shosai, both of whom, in contrast with Zeshin, maintained a classical style that owed a lot to Japanese and Chinese landscape art.
[32] Shibayama wares invented in the 1770s during the Edo period,[33] combined lacquer, gold, silver, shellfish, ivory, coral, tortoise shell, ceramics and other novel materials in elaborate decorations.
[35] Richly-decorated lacquerwares in original designs were popular domestically, and even more so with Western buyers during this period of European and American fascination with Japanese art.
[30] After the Meiji era, a new generation of artists further changed the decorative language, depicting plants in a stylised way without naturalistic settings.
Through the process of designating important craftsmen such as Gonroku Matsuda (松田権六) and Kazumi Murose (室瀬和美) as Living National Treasure as well the government's effort to encourage the development of new Urushi workshop, the art is gradually establishing itself once again.
The Tokugawa Art Museum in Nagoya City, Japan has a lacquer collection including the Edo period maki-e bridal trousseau that was designated a National Treasure.
[59] Marie Antoinette's collection of domestic lacquer is split between the Louvre, the Guimet Museum, and the Palace of Versailles.
[60] Amongst those lacquer artists that have been named as Living National Treasures are Kazumi Murose (室瀬和美), Kōichi Nakano (中野孝一), Fumio Mae (前史雄), Masami Isoi (磯井正美), Hitoshi Ōta (太田儔), Yoshito Yamashita (山下義人), Isao Ōnishi (大西勲), Kunie Komori (小森邦衞), Kiichirō Masumura (増村紀一郎), and Shōsai Kitamura (北村昭斎).
Past Living National Treasures were Shōzan Takano (高野松山), Gonroku Matsuda (松田権六), Naoji Terai (寺井直次), Yoshikuni Taguchi (田口善国), Shōgyo Ōba (大場松魚), Otomaru Kōdō (音丸耕堂), Taihō Mae (前大峰), Joshin Isoi (磯井如真), Yūsai Akaji (赤地友哉), Mashiki Masumura (増村益城), and Keishirō Shioda (塩多慶四郎).
