The Kakiemon elephants are a pair of 17th century

Japanese porcelain , is one of the oldest Japanese crafts and art forms, dating back to the Neolithic period. Kilns have produced earthenware, pottery, stoneware, glazed pottery, glazed stoneware, porcelain, and blue-and-white ware. Japan has an exceptionally ...

figures of elephants in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It documen ...

. They were made by one of the

Kakiemon is a style of Japanese porcelain, with overglaze decoration called "enameled" ceramics. It was originally produced at the factories around Arita, in Japan's Hizen province (today, Saga Prefecture) from the Edo period's mid-17th century onwar ...

potteries, which created the first enamelled porcelain in Japan, and exported by the early

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock co ...

. These figures are thought to have been made between 1660 and 1690 and are in the style known as Kakiemon. They were made near

Arita, Saga is a town located in Nishimatsuura District, Saga Prefecture, Japan. It is known for producing Arita porcelain, one of the traditional handicrafts of Japan. It also holds the largest ceramic fair in Western Japan, the Arita Ceramic Fair. This ...

on the Japanese island of Kyūshū at a time when elephants would not have been seen in Japan.

Description

The figures are largely based on Asian elephants but differ slightly in some details. Like

Dürer's Rhinoceros ''Dürer's Rhinoceros'' is the name commonly given to a woodcut executed by German artist Albrecht Dürer in 1515. Dürer never saw the actual rhinoceros which was the first living example seen in Europe since Roman times. Instead the image is ...

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. They are made from enamelled porcelain, which would have been a new technology in Japan at the time they were made. Each elephant is 35.5 cm high, 44 cm long and 14.5 cm wide. The novel near-white glaze which is called 'nigoshide' was developed in this Japanese pottery in the seventeenth century. 'Nigoshide' is known for its whiteness and is named after the residue that is left after washing rice. The white ground is decorated with the additional characteristic coloured glazes of red, green, yellow and blue.Kakiemon elephants
British Museum, accessed 6 September 2010

Provenance

These ceramics came from the pottery of

Sakaida Kakiemon Sakaida Kakiemon (), or Sakaida Kizaemon (1596 — 1666) was a Japanese potter who invented the style known after him as Kakiemon. He worked in association with Higashijima Tokue, and created the first enamelled porcelain in Japan. Biography ...

who lived from 1596 to 1666. He worked with Higashijima Tokuemon to create this now traditional type of pottery, which was copied by other factories in the area. Kakiemon's descendants continued this style of porcelain but it fell into disuse and it was revived by a twelfth generation descendant, Sakaida Shibonosuke.Japan: Its History, Arts and Literature. Volume 8
Frank Brinkley, p.112, accessed September 2010 Kakiemon ware was an important type of

Japanese export porcelain Japanese export porcelain includes a wide range of porcelain that was made and decorated in Japan primarily for export to Europe and later to North America, with significant quantities going to south and southeastern Asian markets. Production for ...

, shipped to Europe by the

between the ports of

Imari is a city located in Saga Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. Imari is most notable because of Imari porcelain, which is the European collectors' name for Japanese porcelain wares made in the town of Arita, Saga Prefecture. The porcelain ...

and Amsterdam. This trade grew enormously in the late 17th century. England had tried to establish a ' factory' (that is, a trading post) in Japan in 1613 under an agreement between King James I and the shōgun Tokugawa Hidetada but the initiative was abandoned in 1623. The elephants are now in the British Museum, as part of the collection donated by Sir Harry Garner.

Importance

The emergence of enamelled porcelain near Arita in Kyushu began Kakiemon-style decoration in overglazed coloured enamels. The success of the Japanese was due to the disruption of the Chinese Jingdezhen porcelain industry during the civil war at the transition between the Ming Dynasty and the Qing dynasty. In this brief period

Chinese export porcelain Chinese export porcelain includes a wide range of Chinese porcelain that was made (almost) exclusively for export to Europe and later to North America between the 16th and the 20th century. Whether wares made for non-Western markets are covered ...

largely dried up, and Japanese potters stepped in to fill the gap, including Kakiemon's new technique and style. These elephants are thought to have been made in 1660 to 1690. They would have been made by casting into moulds and the remains of broken elephant shaped moulds have been found in modern excavations at Arita. Meissen porcelain, which was developed in the 18th century, is considered to have been strongly influenced by the Kakiemon Japanese imports.''Japan encyclopedia'' by Louis Frédéric p.455, accessed 6 September 2010
/ref> 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. Kakiemon porcelain continued to be made under

Sakaida Kakiemon XIV Sakaida Kakiemon XIV (), or Sakaida Masashi (26 August 1934 – 15 June 2013) was a Japanese potter, ceramicist and former Living National Treasure in Japan.Kakiemon Sakaida
ExploreJapaneseCeramics, accessed 7 September 2010 There are few artefacts like this pair of elephants extant although there is a similar elephant (c.1680) in the

Groninger Museum The Groninger Museum () is an art museum in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands. The museum exhibits modern and contemporary art of local, national, and international artists. The museum opened in 1874. The current post-modernist building c ...

in the Netherlands and another in the

Fitzwilliam Museum The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard FitzWilliam, 7th V ...

in Cambridge.Object of the Month November
Groningen Museum, accessed 6 September 2010

''A History of the World in 100 Objects''

This sculpture was featured in ''

A History of the World in 100 Objects ''A History of the World in 100 Objects'' was a joint project of BBC Radio 4 and the British Museum, consisting of a 100-part radio series written and presented by British Museum director Neil MacGregor. In 15-minute presentations broadcast on ...

'', a series of radio programmes that started in 2010 as a collaboration between the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

and the British Museum.A History of the World in 100 Objects
BBC. accessed 5 September 2010

References

{{British Museum Asian objects in the British Museum Japanese porcelain Elephants in art Individual pieces of porcelain