松田権六

Born in Kanazawa, Ishikawa prefecture in 1896. His older brother was a Buddhist household shrine maker who used lacquer techniques, and at the age of seven Gonroku began to learn lacquer arts. In 1910 he entered the Lacquer Department (Byōkin (maki-e) Section) of the Ishikawa Technical School. At that point his technical skills were said to already be equal to those of graduates of the program. After graduating from the school in 1914, he moved to Tokyo, where an introduction from Fujioka Kingo, the teacher who mentored him in high school, led him to visit Rokkaku Shisui. That year he entered the lacquer department at Tokyo Bijutsu Gakkō (Tokyo Fine Arts School, present-day Tokyo University of the Arts) and boarded as a resident student at Rokkaku’s home from that November until his graduation. He also assisted Rokkaku in his lacquer work commissioned by the Construction Bureau (Takumiryō) of the Imperial Household Ministry. In addition to his training from Rokkaku, he was taught by the lacquer department teachers at Tokyo Fine Arts School, including Shirayama Shōsai, Tsuzuki Kōsai, Umezawa Ryūshin, and Hashimoto Ichizō II. His coursework extended beyond lacquer, as he diligently studied a wide array of fields, from painting to sculpture, metalwork, drafting, and art history, under teachers such as Kawai Gyokudō, Terasaki Kōgyō, Okada Saburōsuke, Takamura Kōun, Watanabe Kōgai, and Masaki Naohiko. His technical skills were praised from his student days on, as fully revealed in his graduation work “Small Tebako (Cosmetic Box) with Design of Flowering Plants, Birds and Animals” (1919, Tokyo University of the Arts) which features vividly drawn individualistic line work depicting frightened animals fleeing from a lion’s roar. In 1921, an introduction from Masaki led to his working at the Tōyō Bunko (Toyo Bunko) on the restoration of lacquer works which had been excavated from the Le-lang Fenmu tombs on the Korean Peninsula. In 1925, his “Bookshelf with Phoenixes and Flowers Design” (1924, whereabouts unknown) was entered by the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce in the Paris Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes where it was awarded a Gold Medal. In 1926, he participated in the founding of the Mukei craft artists group with Takamura Toyochika, Toyoda Katsuaki, Hirokawa Matsugorō, Yamazaki Kakutarō, and others. He also participated in the founding of the Nihon Kōgei Bijutsukai (Japan Craft Art Association) which centered on Akatsuka Jitoku, Itaya Hazan, Katori Masahiko, Tsuda Shinobu, and Rokkaku Shisui. That same year, and at the urging of Rokkaku and Ōmura Seigai, he started working at Namiki Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (present-day Pilot Corporation). He did the lacquer work adorning fountain pens and smoking equipment but was then assigned to the production of the “Kyūshitsu Decorated Adorned Ceremonial Sword” 御大礼御剣髹漆飾used in the enthronement of Emperor Shōwa. As a result he left Namiki the following year and became an assistant professor at Tokyo Fine Arts School. In 1928, he worked on the interior decoration of two luxury passenger liners produced in Japan featuring the latest technical advances, the “Terukunimaru” and “Yasukunimaru”. In 1931 he was hired by the Tokyo Fine Arts School to supervise the lacquer work in the Front Hall of the Imperial Resting Room in the Imperial Parliament Building (precursor to the present-day National Diet Building). Thus Matsuda was involved in work on many fronts, from the repair of excavated items to large-scale lacquer decorations and Tokyo Fine Arts School commissioned works. This process brought him into contact with lacquer work from various regions, periods, and types, which deepened his knowledge not only of materials and surface decoration, but also base materials, object composition, and their production process. He became acquainted with the important collector Masuda Takashi (Don’ō) and had the opportunity to repair some of the masterpieces in his collection. That experience played a major role in the development of his connoisseurship skills. These experiences became the lifeblood, indeed, the unshakeable foundation of Matsuda’s lacquer arts that led to the later production of his own works. In 1933 the Ministry of Education dispatched him on an observation tour of various countries in Europe. While in England he supervised the lacquer work done on tobacco pipes at Alfred Dunhill, Ltd. These experiences on-site renewed Matsuda’s determination that he must do this work that could only be carried out by someone who is Japanese. His major prewar works include the use of platinum in his “doro-e”, a metallic powder-based painting decoration method found in the Shōsōin Treasures and Rimpa school lacquer works. The sinuously drawn, wild expanse of bushclover blossoms on his “Low Table, Autumn Field Design, Gold and Silver Painting” (1932, National Crafts Museum, Kanazawa), and “Lacquer Cabinet with Design of Heron in Makie” (1938, Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum), a bold arrangement of waves and a heron with wings spread wide created in this method and using such novel materials as mica and tin alloy. While always choosing animal and plant themes from nature, he challenged himself, exploring the potential of new materials and techniques as he sought a Japanese-style expression suited to the contemporary age. The Nihon Shitsugeiin was formed in 1936, with Masaki as advisor, Rokkaku and Watanabe Soshū as supporting members, and Matsuda as a member. “Jidaiwan Taikan (Volume 1)” (Hōunsha) was published in 1939 as a compendium of famous bowls from Japan’s many regions. In 1943 he was appointed a professor at the Tokyo Fine Arts School. As Tokyo fell under gradually more intense air raid attacks, he worked on his “Cabinet with Hōrai (Mount Penglai) Design” (1944, Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, Kanazawa) with the thought that it might become his final work. This cabinet with its ingenious bi-fold opening construction is a superb work, its imposing form showing a Rimpa-style impromptu expanse of flowing water and rhythmically composed flock of cranes gathering in the Mount Hōrai land of the immortals. In 1949 he was appointed a professor at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, the Fine Arts School’s successor under the education system reforms of the time. The following year he was appointed to the Council for the Protection of Cultural Properties expert committee and participated in the surveys used to determine the designation of National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties under the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties. A survey of the lacquer works in the Shōsōin Treasures was begun, with the participation of Matsuda, Yoshino Tomio, Mizoguchi Saburō, and others. This survey concluded that the long-debated technical details of the lacquer used on the sheath for the “Kingin Denkazari no Karatachi” 金銀鈿荘唐大刀 (Kara-tachi Sword with Gilded Silver Fittings and Inlay) was in fact burnished “maki-e” (“togidashi maki-e”). Matsuda’s keen eye made numerous discoveries in the field of cultural properties restoration, including the discovery of the “kin-hyōmon” 金平文 (imbedded gold designs) on the “zushi” shrine for the Taima Mandala at Taimadera, and the pigments used in the Konjikidō, Chūsonji. In 1955, Matsuda was designated The Holder of an Important Intangible Cultural Property: Makie. Upon the establishment of the Nihon Kōgeikai (Japan Kōgei Association), he was appointed a director. While he had displayed his works at government-sponsored exhibitions from the prewar era onwards, he then switched to displaying works at the Nihon Dentō Kōgeiten (Japan Traditional Art Crafts Exhibition) and withdrew from The Japan Fine Arts Exhibition (Nitten) in 1958. In 1962 he was appointed chairman of the Japan Kōgei Association. In 1963 he retired from Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music at the official retirement age for professors and was named a professor emeritus. That same year he was named a Person of Cultural Merit. In 1964 he published “Urushi no Hanashi (The Story of Lacquer)” (Iwanami Shoten, Tokyo) and in 1965 he received the Nineteenth Mainichi Publishing Culture Award. His postwar works include “Ornamental Box, Yūsoku Pattern, Maki-e and Raden Inlay” (1960, National Crafts Museum, Kanazawa), “Sutra Box with Design of Karavinka and Kusuma-mala in Maki-e” (1965, Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, Kanazawa), “Ornamental Box, Bamboo Grove Design, Maki-e and Bachiru Inlay” (1965, National Crafts Museum, Kanazawa), “Ornamental Box with Design of Pine Tree in Maki-e” (1966, Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, Kanazawa), “Casket, “Red Dragonflies,” Maki-e” (1969, National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto), and “Two-tier Table, Black Pine and Bird Design, Bachiru Inlay and Maki-e” (1972, National Crafts Museum, Kanazawa). Suited to his moniker of “lacquer genius” 漆聖, Matsuda produced a succession of masterworks characterized by his own view of nature played out in a fusion of extremely highly skilled lacquer work and lovely, elegant motif composition. A corner of Matsuda’s home in Bunkyō-ku, Tokyo was moved to Kanazawa and reconstructed and opened to the public as Matsuda Gonroku’s Maki-e Studio in the National Crafts Museum, an institution that itself had been shifted from Tokyo and opened in Kanazawa in 2020. (Nakao Yui / Translated by Martha J. McClintock) (Published online: 2024-03-12)