18. Sozan (for Kinkozan)

Sozan (leading painter for Kinkozan) 素山

The painter Sozan 素山was one of the productive artists who worked for the Kinkozan workshop, and among them he was certainly the best. The Kinkozan workshop knew many decorators, but most of them worked anonymously under the name Kinkozan. Only a select group of the very best decorators were allowed to place their signature next to that of Kinkozan. Itozan, Gassan, Keizan and certainly Sozan were among those who, in separate rooms, sometimes worked weeks and even months on a single piece. This is in contrast to the decorators who, sitting on a busy work floor, were deployed to deliver mass products. Sozan managed to produce work of very high quality and refinement, in a way that ties in with Western painting techniques such as perspective and color gradients, but also in combination with Japanese and Chinese composition styles. It is this high quality of painting and unparalleled attention to detail that makes Kinkozan items painted by Sozan highly sought after. It is not bold to say that these are among the best Satsuma products ever made. However, nothing is known about his life itself and even his year of birth and death remains unknown.