Yabu Meizan ( ja, 藪明山, birth name Yabu Masashichi (), January 20, 18531934) was a Japanese artist and workshop owner known for painting on porcelain. His studio produced high-end Satsuma ware, primarily for the export market. That term was originally coined for artistic painted porcelain from the Satsuma Province. Eventually it expanded to include low-quality porcelain that was mass-produced for export, whereas Meizan was one of the artists who continued the tradition of high artistic quality while also successfully exporting. He is regarded as the "prince" of this medium and today his works are sought after by collectors.

Biography

Khalili Collection Japanese Meiji Art S30

Yabu Meizan was born on January 20, 1853, in Nagahori, Osaka. In 1880 he opened his workshop in Osaka, employing and training artists. Wares were brought from the kiln of Chin Jukan in Satsuma Province to Osaka to be decorated. The American art museum founder Charles Parsons recounts a visit to Meizan's workshop in his book ''Notes of a Trip around the World in 1894 and 1895''.

"He is very celebrated. He had 17 men and boys at work, all decorating. He makes the designs and watches them carefully in executing the work. Some are very wonderful workers. All is order, neatness and silence, no words spoken."

Meizan actively marketed his work internationally as well as domestically, taking an active role in organising the presentation of Japanese wares at world's fairs. This led to acclaim as well as sales. His success inspired another workshop to use his name and imitate his style, without matching his subtlety or detail. His career declined during World War I as the war and economic turmoil made it difficult to run an export business. Japanese art was also falling out of favour with American and European buyers, who gradually turned to China.

Style

Meizan's works are characterised by minute decoration applied using copper plate designs. These engraved copper plates were used to print the designs on paper, which would then be cut to provide stencils for painting on vases or plates. His decorations used Chinese and Buddhist subjects until the 1890s, when he adopted more Japanese symbolism, such as fishermen or fighting samurai. He would draw from or copy popular prints by artists including Hiroshige. Over the course of his career, the designs included more and more detail. A single work might depict thousands or flowers or butterflies, or hundreds of people in a procession. Towards the end of his career he took a different approach, covering whole vases in a single motif. This new artistic direction, which may have been inspired by critics' opinions, was a commercial failure at the time; buyers much preferred the crowded style.

Exhibitions

From 1885 to 1916, Meizan displayed his art works at a number of national exhibitions and world's fairs, winning multiple medals. These included the Fourth Kyoto Exhibition of 1885 (where he won a bronze medal), the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1899 and again in 1900, the

Louisiana Purchase Exhibition The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the St. Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, from April 30 to December 1, 1904. Local, state, and federal funds totaling $15 mil ...

of 1904 and the London

Japan–British Exhibition The took place at White City, London in Great Britain from 14 May 1910 to 29 October 1910. It was the largest international exposition that the Empire of Japan had ever participated in and was driven by a desire of Japan to develop a more favora ...

of 1910. For the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition, Meizan was appointed as secretary of the Japan Exhibits Association, organising the arrangement and decoration of the hall. His final international exhibition was the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. Outside of Japan a large collection of his art works form part of the

Khalili Collection of Japanese Art The Khalili Collection of Japanese Art is a private collection of decorative art from Meiji-era (1868–1912) Japan, assembled by the British-Iranian scholar, collector and philanthropist Nasser D. Khalili. Its 1,400 art works include metalwork ...

. The Walters Art Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art also hold pieces. Works by Meizan were included in exhibitions drawn from the Khalili Collections at the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, in 1994 and 1995, in the Wilmington Arts Centre, Delaware, in 1999,

Portland Art Museum The Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon, United States, was founded in 1892, making it one of the oldest art museums on the West Coast and seventh oldest in the US. Upon completion of the most recent renovations, the Portland Art Museum becam ...

in 2002, and in the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, in 2006.

Gallery

File:MET 136074.jpg, Bowl, late 19th century File:Khalili Collection of Japanese Meiji Art S148.jpg, Vase, circa 1890 File:Yabu Meizan - Bowl with a Multitude of Women - Walters 492280 - Profile.jpg, Bowl with a multitude of women, circa 1904 File:Khalili Collection of Japanese Meiji Art S128.jpg, Bowl, circa 1910

References

Sources