Biography

Short entry. Open, citable sources for this maker are limited, so we have published only what we can source. It will be extended as research continues.

Kagawa Katsuhiro (1853–1917) is recorded by the National Crafts Museum under the name 香川勝廣. According to the Tokyo National Museum, he trained under a maker of sword fittings in the Edo period and later became a professor at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts.³¹

His Plaque with Monkeys Playing with a Mantis of 1892 is made in several coloured metals in raised inlay on a brass ground. It was shown at Chicago in 1893 and given to the Tokyo National Museum by the Japan Delegate Office. The museum calls it representative of his work at the peak of his powers. In 1903–05 he made a pair of silver flower vessels with phoenixes for the Phoenix Room of the Meiji Palace, commissioned by the Imperial Household Ministry.¹²

He was appointed an Imperial Household Artist on 4 April 1906.⁴

At auction 落札作品

Our auction-records database holds 1 public result for this maker, at Christie’s, from 2012 to 2012. The highest is an impressive collaborative pair of bronze and mixed-metal vases representing spring and autumn, Christie's, Japanese & Korean Art, 2012-09-11, lot 116, at US$86,500. These are public historical results, not valuations.