CLOISONNE Technique: There are VERY few pieces of Nippon that use this technique, but cloisonne had been a lucrative product for Japan since the beginning of the Meiji era in 1868. Despite the fact that the Chinese are credited with making cloisonne for years, most of the terminology to describe the process is French as they dominated this enameling practice for nearly 10 centuries. The Japanese process to create it was slightly different than any earlier producer and they call this slightly varied technique Shippo. Today cloisonne and Shippo are used interchangeably. The process all begins with a metal substrate onto which a design is drawn. The copper or bronze wires are shaped into the design, resulting in cloisons that will receive the color. Rather than soldering the wires to the metalwork, the Japanese used paste or glue made from an orchid root. Glass paste, enamels colored with metallic oxide, even matter prepared from jewels, were “painted” into the cloisons with a bamboo pen in the colors dictated by the design. The enamel was allowed to fully dry and then it was fired in a muffle kiln. As the enamel (or whatever fill was used) tended to shrink after cooling the process was repeated until the cloisons were flush with the wires. At this point, the piece was sanded and polished to a high gloss..

Totai or Jiki Shippo used this same process but its substrate was a white porcelain body, not metal. The Japanese call cloisonne created on porcelain with wires Jiki Shippo, sometimes called Totai Shippo. Nippon cloisonne was only created on a portion of the body not all, but like all cloisonne on porcelain great care had to be taken when firing since metal wires and earthenware expand at very different rates. This resulted in a higher breakage rate during/after firing. This could account for so few Nippon cloisonne pieces being made.

Nippon Cloisonne is backmarked with Green JVP 47 which tells us that the Morimura Group (which later became Noritake) produced this product. Copies by other Japanese companies of wares that Morimura made were common but, to date,  none of this style have been found.

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