The masters of the Meiji era

About the maker pages

Each page gathers what the sources record about one maker or studio: a biography footnoted to museum records, reference articles and auction lot essays; a dated chronology; the Imperial Household Artist appointment where there was one; archive records of documented works; and the maker’s public auction results, with photographs credited to the houses.

Names are given in romaji with macrons and in kanji where a source supplies them. Studios that worked under one name over several generations, such as Kinkōzan, Seifū and Miyagawa Kōzan, are treated as lines: we say which head a source refers to, and where the sources do not say, we leave it open. Short entries are marked as such. They will grow as research continues, and we do not fill gaps with conjecture.

Attributions follow the catalogue: By, Workshop of, Attributed to, Style of, or Company. Where a catalogue names a painter or carver as well as a firm, as with Sōzan for Kinkōzan or Onosawa Shigenobu for Ozeki, both are recorded.

Sources for the maker pages

Biographies draw on the holding museums (the Tokyo National Museum through ColBase, the Walters Art Museum, LACMA and others), on the English and Japanese Wikipedia articles for each maker, on the Imperial Household Artist appointment table, and on the lot essays of Bonhams and Christie’s. Each fact carries a footnote. Where two sources disagree, as they do on the Akasaka Palace panels or on the date of death of Kinkōzan Sōbei VII, both are reported.