Portrait of Namikawa Yasuyuki (1845-1927)

In the midst of the chaotic early years of Meiji after the shogunate came to an end, the shippō artist Namikawa Yasuyuki (1845-1927) was born; he would later become an extremely popular artist and his works still remain in great demand on the art market today. Namikawa was born to a family that had absolutely nothing to do with shippō, and served under Shōrenin-no-miya. During the turmoil between the end of the shogunate and early Meiji period, shippō cloisonné enameling caught his attention and he focused on developing the technique through trials and errors, becoming a key figure in the development of pre-modern Kyoto cloisonné ware.