The second part of the catalogue of the ceramic holdings of the Collection focuses on another great artist-entrepreneur, Yabu Meizan (1853–1934), and illustrates 171 of his earthenwares and those of his contemporaries and imitators, minutely decorated in enamels and gold over a characteristic crackled ground.
These wares, under the misleading name of ‘Satsuma’, were the most popular of the Japanese craft products which dazzled the Western world in the era of the great exhibitions.
A further essay by Impey and Fairley demolishes the various myths about the origin of ‘Satsuma’ put about by Japanese and Western writers in the late 19th century, while a biography of Yabu Meizan by Yamazaki Tsuyoshi, illustrated with copious examples of his work from the Yabu family archive and from contemporary illustrations, sheds fascinating light on the evolution of his style and working methods.
The late Dr Oliver Impey – Senior Curator, Ashmolean Museum; Reader in Japanese Art, University of Oxford
Malcolm Fairley – Formerly of Sotheby’s and Barry Davies Oriental Art; now co-owner of the Asian Art Gallery, London
Yamazaki Tsuyoshi – Professor of History and Craft, Kanazawa University of Arts; former Curator at the Fine Arts Division of the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan; former Curator, Osaka City Museum
300 pages; fully illustrated in colour; 40 x 30 cm; hardback with slipcase; 1995; ISBN: 978-1-874780-06-9
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