Why are Kakiemon elephants important?

Kakiemon-style porcelain, with its distinctive red enamel, was in great demand in Europe. These elephants would have been specifically made for the European market and transported from Japan by the Dutch East India Company – the world’s first multinational company.

Who created the Kakiemon elephants?

The Kakiemon elephants are a pair of 17th century Japanese porcelain figures of elephants in the British Museum. They were made by one of the Kakiemon potteries, which created the first enamelled porcelain in Japan, and exported by the early Dutch East India Company….Kakiemon elephants (British Museum)

What are the Kakiemon elephants?

The Kakiemon elephants are a pair of 17th century Japanese porcelain figures of elephants in the British Museum. They were made by one of the Kakiemon potteries, which created the first enamelled porcelain in Japan, and exported by the early Dutch East India Company.

What is Kakiemon porcelain?

They were made by one of the Kakiemon potteries, which created the first enameled porcelain in Japan, and exported by the early Dutch East India Company. These figures are thought to have been made between 1660 and 1690 and are in the style known as Kakiemon.

What is the story behind the elephants in the elephant statues?

The figures are largely based on Asian elephants but differ slightly in some details. Like Dürer’s Rhinoceros this is art based on the best information available. The artists who made these figures had never seen a real elephant and had to work from drawings and sketches; possibly from Buddhist sources.

When did Sakaida Kakiemon invent glaze?

The milk-white glaze called ‘nigoshide’, developed by Kakiemon, was out of use by the end of the Edo period. However the technique was rediscovered in 1953 by Sakaida Kakiemon XII (1878–1963) and Sakaida Kakiemon XIII (1906–1982) and was declared a Japanese “Important Intangible Cultural Asset” in 1971.

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