Matsuda Gonroku

Lacquer box (1960)

Matsuda Gonroku ( Japanese 松田 権 六 ; born April 4, 1896 in Kanazawa ( Ishikawa Prefecture ); died June 15, 1986 ) was a Japanese lacquer artist.

life and work

Matsuda Gonroku began to occupy himself with lacquer art under the guidance of his brother Kōsaku. When he then visited the Ishikawa (県 立 石川 工業 学校, Kenritsu Kōgyō Gakkō), he trained under the lacquer artists Fujioka Kingo, Ishino Ryūgorō and Maekawa Sa'ichi and learned the Igarashi style of lacquer art. At the "Tōkyō Bijutsu Gakkō" (東京 美術 学校), the forerunner of today's Tōkyō Geijutsu Daigaku (Geidai), Gonroku studied the various types of maki-e under Rokkaku Shisui . After that he continued to deal with lacquerware and repaired it. He worked in the treasury of the Shōsō-in and came into contact with old lacquer techniques.

Matsuda's own work reflects these investigations, on the basis of which he developed his own style. Occasionally he worked with mother-of-pearl inlays and other lacquer techniques. He also used lacquer to decorate interiors and equipped ships of the "Japan Mail Line" with lacquer decorations.

Matsuda was appointed to the Imperial Academy of Arts , was an expert in the Commission for Cultural Affairs (文化 財 専 門 調査 委員, Bunkazai Semmon Chōsa-Iin), was a juror of the "Exhibition of Japanese Traditional Crafts" (日本 伝 統 工 芸 展, Nihon Dentō Kōgei-ten) and professor at the Geidai.

Awards and honors

• 1955 " Living National Treasure "
• 1963 person with special cultural merits
• 1965 Mainichi Culture Prize for his font "About lacquer work" (う る し の 話, Urushi no hanashi)
• 1976 Order of Culture .

Remarks

1. ↑ Owned by the National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo .
2. ↑ The Igarashi style (五十 嵐 派) goes back to the Igarashi family, who were active in the Makie lacquer art around 1600.

Web links (images)

The National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo owns nearly 40 objects, including

• Small bowl with lucky decoration (蒔 絵 福寿 草 文 小盆, Makie Fukuju-Sōbun Shōbon), 1911
• Vessel of Longevity (長生 の 器, Chōsei no utsuwa), 1940
• Lacquered and decorated tea caddy (渚 蒔 絵 桧 棗, Nagasa-makie Hinoki-natsume), 1960

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Tazawa: Biographical Dictionary.

literature

• S. Noma (Ed.): Matsuda Gonroku . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993, ISBN 4-06-205938-X , p. 933.
• Tazawa, Yutaka: Matsuda Gonroku . In: Biographical Dictionary of Japanese Art. Kodansha International, 1981. ISBN 0-87011-488-3 .
• Laurance P. Roberts: Matsuda Gonroku . In: A Dictionary of Japanese Artists. Weatherhill, 1976. ISBN 0-8348-0113-2 .

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Matsuda is the family name, Gonroku the first name.