Sakaida Kakiemon XII Sculptures and Carvings

Exquisite white glazed porcelain figure (okimono) of a sitting child holding a spray of chrysanthemum flowers with cobalt blue glazed leaves in its hand, by Sakaida Kakiemon XII (1878–1963). The milk white glaze is called nigoshide a type of technique which was not continued at the end of the Edo period, and is the famous rediscovery done by Sakaida Kakiemon XII in 1953. The bottom signed ‘Kakiemon’. Sakaida Kakiemon XII assumed the family title on the death of his father, Sakaida Kakiemon XI, in 1917. Earlier he had graduated from the Arita Apprentice School and then studied ceramics with his father. Initially he worked in the traditional Kakiemon style, echoing the work of his forbears in the 17th and 18th centuries. He began working with his own son in 1924, after the future Kakiemon XIII graduated from the Arita Industrial School. Together in 1953 they succeeded in recreating the classical Kakiemon technique for producing a nigoshide milky-white porcelain body. This technique was designated a national cultural treasure meriting preservation and protection by the Cultural Protection Committee in 1955. That same year he exhibited at the 2nd Japan Traditional Crafts Exhibition (Nihon Dento Kogei-ten) for the first time, winning a prize for his entry. In 1958, he exhibited at the World Exposition...