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You are near the eastern limits of the city in the home of one of Kyoto's most distinguished citizens. This room, whose south front is thrown open to the garden by the removal of its sliding screens, is furnished according to the custom of refined and prosperous people. The master of the house whom you see sitting there with a fan in his hand is the chief creator and promoter of one of the most famous art-industries in modern Japan the making of cloisonne ware colored enamels on metal). In the old days before the abolition of fendal classes, he was a young gentleman of the court, belonging to the household of a. Japanese prince. When the Mikado remodeled the whole system of Japanese mobility and removed the court from Kyoto to Tokyo, Mr. Namikawa preferred to remain here and begin an entirely new career. He had, like all well-bred Japanese, a cultivated taste in ceramic art and metal working and he began to make experiments in the production of colored enamels on a base of copper, silver or brass. As fast as he needed assistants he trained them personally for their share in the work; he invented processes of his own and devised a great number of exquisite enamels. His pride has always been, and still is, to produce what is genuinely beautiful counting no expenditure of time and pains too great if the result is fuller perfection in design and workmanship. The products of his workshop are known by collectors and connoisseurs all over Europe and America.

The lady seated on the mat is Mr. Namikawa's wife. The young girl is his daughter. She is feeding the tame carp that live in a small artificial pond directly before the house. That charming garden with its luxuriant shrubbery, dwarf trees, sunny paths and picturesque little bridges is characteristically Japanese.

From Notes of Travel. No. 9, copyright, 1904, by Underwood & Underwood.


Home and garden of Mr. Namikawa, Kyoto, Japan
Maison et jardin de M. Namikawa, Kyoto, Japon.
Haus und Garten des Herrn Namikawa, Kyoto, Japan.
Casa y jardin del Sr. Namikawa, Kyoto, Japón.
Herr Namikawas hem och trädgård i Kioto, Japan.
Домъ и садь Г-на Намикава, Кіото, Японія.