Kiyomizu Sannenzaka Museum

The Kiyomizu Sannenzaka Museum is the first museum in Japan to take as its permanent collection metalwork, cloisonné, maki-e lacquerware and Kyoto Satsuma ware artworks of the late Edo and Meiji period.
Metalworking, cloisonné enameling, and lacquering are technologies that were born in the various countries along the Silk Road, but maki-e lacquerware and the so-called “wireless” cloisonné especially developed so significantly in Japan as to become entirely new, uniquely Japanese techniques. These technologies were frequently used for decorative purposes in sword fittings, incense utensils, and the like, and were brought from the end of the Edo period through the early years of Meiji to a very high level of development.　Afterwards, however, for a number of reasons that included the official abolishment of the wearing of swords and the westernization of Japanese daily life, they suffered a rapid decline.
If the artworks exhibited here represent work produced by officially appointed Imperial Artists, they have come as well from the hands of unknowns. Each of the works, however, is the creation of a subtle and thoroughly refined artistic sensibility. Our greatest hope is that this exhibition will result not only in the proper artistic reevaluation of Japanese metalworking, cloisonné enameling, and maki-e lacquerware, but also that in the future, works artistically and technically superior to these magnificent late Edo and Meiji specimens might be produced.