# Cloisonné (七宝（クロワゾネ）)

> A technique of enamelling in which thin metal strips are laid on a metal or porcelain ground to form chambers, and vitreous enamel paste is packed into each chamber. The strips survive the firing as visible metal lines, so every area of colour stays closed inside a line. Getty files it under processes rather than styles.

- IndexStyle No.517 — https://indexstyle.org/styles/cloisonne
- Kind: Technique · Family: Vessel and Craft Techniques · Era: ancient–
- Mood: Technique, Luxury, Exhilaration
- What this family collects: Techniques that inlay, lay on, or pour another material into the body of a vessel, where the process of finishing became a look of its own in each region.

## Defining characteristics

- Every area of colour is fenced by a thin metal line, and the lines divide the whole design without a break
- No two colours bleed into each other
- Only the lines give back the light of metal rather than of glass
- The ground is metal or porcelain, so the design wraps a curved vessel instead of sitting on a flat panel

## Best used for

- Designing a multicolour version of a crest or a logo where colours are separated rather than blended
- Building a diagram or a map in which the outline itself carries the ornament

## Composition recipe

- Typography & lettering: Enclose letters the way the design encloses colour. Avoid typefaces too fine to survive the width of the wire.
- Layout & structure: Divide the entire field into closed cells, leaving no area outside a cell. The smallest cell is set by the width the line can hold.
- Material & texture: Fence with metal lines and fill each cell with a glassy colour. Keep the lines the colour of metal and never let one area of colour cross a line.

## Colour

Read off the reference works below, so a direction rather than a fixed palette.

- Ground: #C9A227
- The colour it is remembered by: #B03A2E
- Text and outlines: #1F5FA0

## What to avoid

Drawing the lines as decoration without actually closing the cells lets colour escape and reduces the technique to a mere outline.

## Application checklist

Work through this before calling a piece an application of this style.

- [ ] Visible in the piece: Every area of colour is fenced by a thin metal line, and the lines divide the whole design without a break
- [ ] Visible in the piece: No two colours bleed into each other
- [ ] Visible in the piece: Only the lines give back the light of metal rather than of glass
- [ ] Visible in the piece: The ground is metal or porcelain, so the design wraps a curved vessel instead of sitting on a flat panel
- [ ] The layout follows: Divide the entire field into closed cells, leaving no area outside a cell. The smallest cell is set by the width the line can hold.
- [ ] The lettering follows: Enclose letters the way the design encloses colour. Avoid typefaces too fine to survive the width of the wire.
- [ ] The material and surface follow: Fence with metal lines and fill each cell with a glassy colour. Keep the lines the colour of metal and never let one area of colour cross a line.
- [ ] The colour relation holds: #C9A227 as ground, #B03A2E carrying the style, #1F5FA0 for text and outlines
- [ ] At least one reference work below has been studied directly
- [ ] The caution above ("What to avoid") has been addressed

## Related styles

- **Cloisonnism (クロワゾニスム)** — A manner of painting named after the partitions of cloisonné enamel: flat fields of colour enclosed by heavy contour lines. It brought the way of seeing of ukiyo-e prints and stained glass into oil painting, abandoning shaded volume in favour of colour laid down from memory. The technique that prepared the flatness of the poster. → https://indexstyle.org/styles/cloisonnism
- **Stained Glass (ステンドグラス)** — Divides light with colored glass and lead lines, making contour itself structure and story. → https://indexstyle.org/styles/stained-glass

## Compose it with something else

The dictionary can put this entry in a structural role and another in an accent role, and report where the two fight: https://indexstyle.org/compose?ids=cloisonne+cloisonnism

## Further study

- how the metal strips used as partitions are stood up and fixed to the ground
- why firing has to be repeated, since the enamel sinks each time
- which regions have used the names jingtailan and shippo

## Reference works

- Cloisonné panel with dragons, Ming dynasty, late 16th–early 17th century, The Metropolitan Museum of Art — Wikimedia Commons / CC0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cloisonn%C3%A9%20panel%20with%20dragons%2C%20Ming%2C%20Metropolitan%20Museum%20of%20Art.JPG
- Namikawa Yasuyuki, cloisonné vase with butterflies and chrysanthemums, c. 1900–1910 — Wikimedia Commons / CC0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cloisonn%C3%A9%20vase%20with%20design%20of%20butterflies%20and%20chrysanthemums%20by%20Namikawa%20Yasuyuki.JPG
- Process samples of the cloisonné technique, 19th century, Japan, Los Angeles County Museum of Art — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Demonstration%20Set%20of%20Cloisonne%20Technique%20LACMA%20M.91.251.3a-f.jpg

## Source of record

- Getty Research Institute — Art & Architecture Thesaurus: cloisonné (300053778) — https://vocab.getty.edu/page/aat/300053778

## Machine surfaces

- JSON: https://indexstyle.org/api/styles/cloisonne
- Image-generation prompt (legally clean): https://indexstyle.org/styles/cloisonne/prompt.txt
- MCP: https://indexstyle.org/mcp (tools: search_styles, get_style, compare_styles, compose_styles, find_related_styles; prompts: image-prompt, apply-style)