Dark lacquer covered in fine red and gold designs covers the outside of this ceramic set of stacking boxes from the Toyoraku Tradition. True to form, the interior is decorated in the Oribe style with pine boughs and green clouds over a cream-colored glaze. The box is 13 x 13 x 16 cm (roughly 5 x 5 x 6-1/2 inches) and is in overall excellent condition, in an old wooden storage box.
The Toyoraku tradition began in the mid 1700s, however it was the fourth generation head of the household (Toyosuke IV 1813~1858) who moved the kiln to Kamimaezu in Nagoya and began applying lacquer and Maki-e to the works. He was succeeded by his son, Toyosuke V (d. 1885) who passed the kiln to his own son Toyosuke VI, (d. 1917), who was highly lauded in his lifetime and made pottery on order of the Meiji emperor, his pieces being selected for international exhibition. The family lineage ended in the Taisho period.
According to Yasuhiro Nakano, Assistant Director of the Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum: “Toyoraku ware is a soft pottery which was produced in Maezu in the southern part of Naka-ku, Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture, for more than 130 years from the late Edo period to the Taisho era”. Also called "Horakuyaki", it is characterized by floral imagery with splashes of green copper glaze.
The first generation in its production was Kato Rikei (1708-1796) a potter from Kyoto who settled in Owari province specializing in Raku ware and tea ceremony accoutrements. He was briefly succeeded by the second generation Toyohachi who passed away in 1801, leaving the kiln to the third generation Toyosuke, (1779-1864) who took his mother’s surname Daiki and subsequent generations were all called Daiki Toyosuke. Toyosuke expanded greatly the family line from orthodox whisked tea (maccha) wares into the steeped tea wares including Oribe styles.
It was however, the pivotal fourth generation (1813-1858) who would change everything. A renaissance man, he was a student of calligraphy and tea under Tenmanya Kyokuzen and wrote Haiku poetry under the tutelage of Yoshiwara Kozan. He was a highly skilled potter and versed in lacquer production and design techniques of inlay and maki-e.
Toyosuke IV began applying lacquer to the ceramic works, and it is this innovation for which Toyoraku is best remembered today. Important local luminaries such as Tanaka Totsugen (1767-1823), Watanabe Kiyoshi (1778-1861), and Kondo Fuzan (1806-1856) are known to have decorated the works of Toyosuke III and IV.
The kiln received the name Toyoraku from Tokugawa Naritaka and was designated an official kiln (Goyogama) of the Owari Tokugawa feudal lords (kin to the Shogun) in December 1842.
Unfortunately, Toyosuke IV passed away at just 45 years old, but his innovation was carried on by subsequent generations and his students. At that time, his son, Tokusaburo (1848-1917), was only 10 years old, and too young to take over family matters.
The fifth generation (d. 1886) excelled in the lacquer technique, and although little is known of his personal life, work by him signed the 85 year old man shows that he must have been born before Toyosuke IV, and was probably selected from among the kiln staff to run the kiln in lieu of the young Tokusaburo. Under the fifth generation the lacquer works took on an opulence not previously known. It is likely that much of the maki-e was farmed out to professional maki-e-shi, and he expanded into more unusual shapes not strictly based on previous wooden forms. He also developed a unique pink color theretofore unknown. It is clear from this that the kiln was enjoying great success. <br>
With the collapse of the Shogunate and the end of the medieval system, the kiln lost its official backing with the local feudal lord. The kiln sought to persevere through the turbulent transition era, and was granted Imperial patronage in Meiji 9.
The kiln made such a stir that Edward Morse visited during his 1882 research trip to Nagoya. Morse had much interest in Japanese ceramics, assembling a collection of over 5,000 pieces of both contemporary and folk pottery now divided between the Museum of Fine Art in Boston and the Peabody Essex museum.
About this same time, Toyosuke V passed away, handing the reins to Toyosuke VI (1848-1917) who actively exhibited and garnered prizes at exhibitions inside and outside Japan. He was awarded at the 1st and 2nd Domestic Industrial Art Exhibitions ((Naikoku Hakurankai 1877 & 1881 respectively). Works were hailed at the Paris Exposition of 1878. Highly lauded in his lifetime he made pottery on order of the Meiji emperor.
His eldest son, Kanehiko (Toyosuke VII), died in the 4th year of the Taisho era (1915), and Tokusaburo, having outlived his son, died in 1917. His younger son, the last Toyosuke, Yatsushiro, died shortly thereafter in 1918, and the kiln closed.
