top of page
Shokan Matsuda 松田祥幹
Lacquer master 漆器蒔絵士
Echizen Shikki(Lacquerware) @Tokyo precfeture
Shokan was born in Sabae (Kawada) in 1965. After studying under Gotou Jutaro in Yamanaka, Ishikawa prefecture, Shokan worked under the watchful eye of his father to master the maki-e.
The Shokan Maki-e Studio was established in 2005 in Tokyo’s Aoyama district.
Matsuda maki-e
松田蒔絵
The atelier Matsuda Maki-e reveals great techniques of work and passion for creativity.
The dynamism in designs and use of colors captures immediately the eyes of admirers.
It is a treasure coming out from the devotion of their life to maki-e, over three generations.
It was Shuetsu Matsuda, born in Kawada – a town in Echizen prefecture (now called Fukui) well known for lacquerware for more than 1500 years – in 1907, who became the first of three generations of maki-e artists of the Matsuda family. As a teenager, he first worked at a workshop making Kyoto style lcquer ware and then went to Aizu in the north to learn particular techniques. When he returned to his hometown, he decided to devote himself to maki-e and gradually reached to establish his own personalized techniques and designs by combining what he learnt in Kyoto and Aizu. Sadly, however, the war in the Pacific began and Shuetsu was no longer able to work but left a vast stock of patterns and sketches.
Shokan was born into this family of rich history and tradition in 1963. He had a brush in his hand from a very early age. His father, Sanao trained him and advised him later to study Yamanaka style in Ishikawa, one of the most famous for lacquer ware in Japan. Shokan showed his talent very quickly and was given an award for his preservation work by the local Archive. He then returned to his hometown, Kawada, and worked with his father.
Their works were awarded several prizes and the future looked bright for the family till the accident occurred. Shokan was involved in a car accident and heavily injured. That was a fatal moment of his life and after making a full recovery, he decided to open a studio of maki-e in Tokyo to recover the awareness of maki-e in our daily life which was declining in modern times. The studio is successful today and while carrying on with his own work, his mission continues.
bottom of page