- Born: 1936
- Died: 2020/1/14
- Japanese: 前田 孝允 (Maeda Kôin)
Maeda Kôin was a master of traditional Ryukyuan lacquerware. He was one of the primary artisans who reproduced the royal throne, calligraphic plaques, decorated pillars, and other lacquerware objects for the restoration of Shuri castle in the 1980s through its opening in 1992, and for display and use in reenactments at the castle in the years since then. He was designated by Okinawa prefecture as a holder of Intangible Cultural Heritage, and served as an advisor to the prefecture on traditional arts.
Originally from Ôgimi village in northern Okinawa, Maeda graduated from the University of the Ryukyus, and was then introduced by painter Adaniya Masayoshi to a job as a designer at the lacquerware company Benbô, the leading producer of contemporary lacquerware designs in Okinawa at the time.[1] He began showing his own work at exhibitions five years later. In 1968, he quit that job and opened his own "Maeda Lacquerware Atelier."
In conjunction with the restoration of Shuri castle, Maeda created a red-lacquered, gilded, and painted royal throne with mother-of-pearl inlay, based on portraits of King Shô Shin and other documentary sources, a project which took about two years. He also produced many of the plaques which now hang over the castle's gates, as well as reproductions of those bestowed upon the kings of Ryûkyû by Qing emperors.
He lived in the Kinjô-chô neighborhood of Shuri during the last decades of his life, and taught as a lecturer at the Okinawa Prefectural University of the Arts and Tokyo University of the Arts. In 2005, he was named director of the Urasoe Museum of Art.[1]
References
- "Maeda Kôin-san shikyo Shurijô fukugen ni jinryoku Okinawa-ken shitei mukei bunkazai Ryûkyû shikki hojisha" 前田孝允さん死去 首里城復元に尽力 沖縄県指定無形文化財琉球漆器保持者, Okinawa Times, 17 Feb 2020.
- “Shitsugei Maeda Kōin-san: Shurijō ni inochi wo fukikonda shitsugei sakka” 漆芸前田孝允：首里城にいのちを吹き込んだ漆芸作家, Shuri: Ryūkyū no miyako wo aruku 首里：琉球の都をあるく, Momoto special issue 別冊モモト, Itoman: Tōyō kikaku (2013/8), 24-29.
- "Ryûkyû shikki" 琉球漆器, Fee nu kaji 南ぬ風 3 (2007/4-6), 3-5.