cloisonne
明治時代に活躍した日本の七宝家の1人である並河靖之についての記事からです。現在、東京都庭園美術館で彼の作品が展示されています。
Yasuyuki Namikawa: A master of cloisonne color and design
There are two ways that the skill of craftsmanship can be emphasized: by showing it off through masses of meticulous decorative details, or by stripping everything to the bare minimum and bringing into focus just a few perfectly executed qualities. Think of it as maximalism vs. minimalism — Gucci vs. Kinfolk.
You might assume that cloisonne — with its recurring ornate motifs delineated in fine silver and gold wire and inlaid with richly colored enamels — would fall squarely into the former category. But one look at the early 20th-century “Incense Burner with Chrysanthemum Arabesques” by Yasuyuki Namikawa on show at the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum (Teien), will prove you wrong. Predominantly white, it is decorated with just a single band of green leaves and blue flowers.
“Namikawa Yasayuki and Japanese Cloisonne,” a retrospective of the artisan credited with popularizing Japanese cloisonne during the Meiji Era (1868-1912), has a wealth of other unexpected exhibits — jars with painterly landscapes, vases sporting understated compositions and containers with simple designs. It is these later works that best illustrate Namikawa’s innovative approach to cloisonne as an artistic medium, rather than as a purely decorative art. But even his earlier classic pieces, created for export during the height of Japonisme in Europe, displayed unusual features unseen in the Chinese cloisonne from which his craft derived.
今回取り上げる単語は"cloisonne" /kl`ɔɪzənéɪ/です。『ジーニアス英和辞典』第4版(大修館)を見てみると、「七宝細工(焼き)(の)」とあり、フランス語で「区切られた」という意味から来ているそうです。
七宝焼とは、金属工芸の一種で、金や銀、銅、鉄などが使われており、壺や花瓶などが主な作品としてあげられます。一説としては、宝石を使って作られるため「七宝焼」と呼ばれると言われています。(Akim)
