This vase and its pair (Museum no. M.205A/1, 2-1917) feature a dragon chasing the Buddhist pearl of enlightenment. The creature is formed from silver and copper wire ‘fields’ which have been filled with coloured enamel paste which is then fired and polished. This technique is known as cloisonné (after the metal ‘cloisons’ or ’fields’).

The lid has a gilded copper knob in the form of a lotus bud. The mythical Ho-o bird (a type of phoenix) appears on the sprinkled translucent brown enamel ground known in Japanese as ‘Chakin-seki' (‘tea-dust’). Namikawa Yasuyuki of Kyoto is credited with the invention of the type of mirror-black enamel that forms the main ground. However, this type of work is typical of the cloisonné enamels being produced in and around Nagoya in about 1880 to 1900.

In 1871 the Nagoya Cloisonné Company (Nagoya Shippo Kaisha) was established at the village of Toshima, just outside Nagoya. So many cloisonné-manufacturing companies sprang up in and around Toshima that the area came to be known as Shippo-mura (‘cloisonné village’) or Shippo-cho (‘cloisonné town’). It rapidly became Japan’s main centre of cloisonné production. At their peak the cloisonné manufacturers of Toshima were producing about 70% of Japanese cloisonné enamels.