Dragon Bowl

This large, double-walled silver bowl features a textured, masterfully hammered ground with a dragon coiled around the vessel executed in high repoussé relief. The dragon’s scales, ridges, facial features are depicted with fine chasing and the undecorated interior is burnished to a high shine. The date “1st October 1895” is inscribed on the foot of the bowl in the center of the front. A raised, rectangular seal-shaped signature on the bottom of the work reads “Made by Kōnoike and Eishō” indicating a collaboration between Kurokawa Eishō, a well-known specialist of hammering and the Kōnoike Company, a producer and dealer of Japanese silver ware, based in Yokohama. The elegant bowl might have been a special order to commemorate an important event.



The sweeping reforms in Meiji society brought far-reaching changes to the production and display of art. With the dissolution of the samurai class, traditional patterns of patronage gave way to new outlets. Metalworkers who had produced functional objects like swords and sword fittings for warriors turned their skill to making objects for no other purpose than aesthetic display. Art and craft began to be taught in art schools, adding a new paradigm to the traditional workshop model. World Expositions stimulated international markets for Japanese decorative arts. Works of art produced in the late 19th century combined traditional Japanese motifs and designs with Western-influenced naturalism. Dragon bowls appear to have been popular during the Meiji period; examples in both silver and bronze still exist, some with a modeled foot and very ornate relief decoration, but Eishō’s bowl is closer to traditional Edo-period design.