Catalog: Antiques: Regional Art: Asian: Japanese (168)

Phoenix soar among golden clouds on this amazing Lacquer box made for holding a Tsuzumi drum by Miura Meiho (1900-1975) enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Houn Maki-e Tuzumi Bako. It is bound with silk chord which is held to the box with solid silver hardware. Inside it is lined with brocade. The box is 30.5 x 24 x 24.5 cm (12 x 9-1/2 x 9-1/2 inches) an is in perfect condition.

A dynamic floral pattern in pale blue and white on pink by Kiyomizu Rokubei V showing the developmental stage of his iconic Taireiji works. Undeniably Taireiji was the most important development by this innovative artist, and pieces are exceedingly rare. It is 19cm (7-1/2 inches) diameter, 27.5cm (11 inches) tall and in excellent condition.
Kiyomizu Rokubei V (Shimizu Kuritaro, 1875-1959) initially studied painting and decorating technique under Kono Bairei, one of the foremost painters in Japan in the Meiji era. After graduating the Kyoto Municipal Special School of Painting, he took a position under his father at the family kiln however. That same year he exhibited his first work at the National Industrial Exposition. He was a co-founder of Yutoen with his father and Asai Chu, and worked ceaselessly to promote the pottery of Kyoto. He helped to establish the Kyoto Ceramics Research Facility (Kyoto Tojiki Shikensho) at the turn of the century which would be the proving ground for many young artist of the era. Doctor Maezaki Shinya has noted that Teishitsu-Gigei-in (Imperial Art Academy Member) Seifu Yohei III also fired his acclaimed works in the Rokubei kiln in the Taisho era. Due to his father’s poor health Rokubei V took the reins unofficially in 1902, commanding the helm until assuming the name Rokubei V in 1913. It was in 1928 that Rokubei changed the reading of the family name from Shimizu to Kiyomizu and applied it retroactively to previous generations. He exhibited constantly, and garnered a great many awards. He worked to get crafts added to the National Art Exhibition (Bunten/Teiten) and served as a judge in 1927, the first year crafts were allowed. In 1937 he was designated a member of the Imperial Art Council (Teishitsu Bijutsu Inkai). Despite changes in the world around him Rokubei persevered, working in all manner of materials and styles. He retired in 1945, perhaps as exhausted as Japan was with the end of the war, or perhaps seeing that capitulation would signal a new era in need of new leaders and a new aesthetic. He passed the name Rokubei to his son and took the retirement name Rokuwa. Uncontainable he continued to create pottery under that name until his death in 1959. His influence is so pervasive he was voted one of the most important potters of the modern era by Honoho magazine, the preeminent quarterly devoted to Japanese pottery. A multitude of works by him are held in the National Museums of Modern Art, both in Tokyo and Kyoto, the Kyoto Kyocera Museum, The Kyoto Hakubutsukan Museum and the Philadelphia Art Museum among others.

Gold forms a billowing pine tree lavishly applied to the dark lacquered body of this wooden water jar enclosed in the original wooden box titled Ikkan Mage-Mizusashi, Oimatsu signed by both the wood craftsman and the lacquer artist. It is 15 cm (6 inches) diameter 16cm tall and in excellent condition, dating from the early 20th century.
The term Ikkan in the title is after Hirai Ikkan, who mastered the technique of creating lacquered receptacles of thin bent and glued wood which were incredibly durable and did not warp or deform with time.

A striking image of an itinerant monk carrying his few earthly possessions though the cedar forest in draped in a mino straw-raincoat and hat, all performed with colored thread in silk embroidery. Behind glass, it has been well protected over the last 100 plus years. The wide dark frame is stained Nara (a form of oak) emulating the arts and crafts style. The inner joints have shrunk, a testament to age. The silk panel is 21.5 x 29 cm (8-1/2 x 11-1/2 inches), the frame 38.5 x 46 x 4.5 cm (15 x 18 x 2 inches) and all are in great condition. An in scription on back states it was created under the guidance of Hattori in commemoration of the opening of the Omi (modern day Shiga prefecture) Womens Technical Training School. The work itself is signed Kimura Umeko of the training department.

A fabulous Rootwood stand of dark red hardwood with a web of interlacing root-legs beneath. It is 48 x 32 x 8 cm (19 x 12-1/2 x 3 inches) and is in overall fine condition, dating from the first half of the 20th century.

Love lasts beyond the grave, here a skeleton walks, her pate decorated with flowers and a bundle of daisies in her hand as she strolls grinning under the shade of a dilapidated umbrella held by an attendant, a poignant painting signed Shoken dating from the Taisho period (1922). Completely restored in a chic Tsumugi cloth border with black lacquered wooden rollers, the scroll is 59 x 192 cm (23-1/2 x 75-1/2 inches) and is in excellent condition.