japanese animal bronze & iron (edo & meiji period)

Sunday, August 23, 2009

BAT MOBIL

Tsuri-gōro or hanging incense burner in the form of a flying bat with out-stretched wings. Of cast and cold-chiseled bronze, with a bronze chain. Signed on the reverse with a chiseled signature by the artist: Yamashiro. Edo period, early 19th century.

With the tomobako or original box, inscribed on the exterior of the lid: Kōmori Tsuri O-gōro or Bat (Form) Hanging Incense Burner; and on the reverse of the lid signed: Okamashi Yamashiro orKettle Caster Yamashiro, and sealed:Yamashiro.

The exterior of the box bears a paper label which reads: Karakane Kōmori Tsuri-gōro or Bronze Bat (Form) Hanging Incense Burner.

Inside the box is a paper auction document inscribed: 83 Yen, Heizandō, with a round seal: Urikireor Sold; and dated:Shōwa Yon Nen Jū-gatsu, Jū-yon-ka, Makino-ke Kanju Shōgun Shozōhin Nyūsatsu Fudamoto Itō Heizandō or Shōwa (era) 4th Year (1929), October 14th, Sale of General Kanju of the Makino Family’s Collection (by) Itō Heizandō (Auction House). Itō Heizandō was located in Ryōgoku, Tokyo.

Made to suspend in a tokonoma alcove, this sleek, stylized bat would have been seen flying through incense as if through evening clouds.

1 ¾” high x 13 3/8” wide x 3 3/8” long

THE LORD OF THE BUNNY

Okimono or sculpture in the form of a quizzical hare. Of cast and cold chiseled bronze, the eyes inlaid in red bronze. Signed with a cast seal form signature on the reverse. Early Edo Period, 17th - early 18th century.

With a period cypress wood storage box, with an applied paper label on the reverse of the lid inscribed: Kodo Usagi Okimono, Keio San Nen, Naniwa Konoike Kei Yori Motomu, Sumiyama Kei or Antique Bronze Rabbit Sculpture, In 1867 Purchased from the Konoike Family of Naniwa, (Osaka), (and signed) Sumiyama Family (Master).

The Konoike family was a major Osaka merchant house during the Edo Period, founded by Yamanaka Shinroku (1570 – 1650). Originally the family fortune derived from the discovery in about 1600 of how to brew refined, clear sake (as opposed to the unfiltered milky type). They became major shippers of the rice wine to Edo (now Tokyo), eventually becoming major agents for sales of Daimyo tax rice. By 1650 they were wealthy and expanding into the banking business of loaning money to feudal lords. By 1700 the Konoike were among the wealthiest merchants in Osaka, and all of Japan.

Only feudal lords and extremely wealthy merchants possessed okimono in the 17th century. Objects such as this were extremely rare until the end of the Edo Period in the mid 19th century. Early examples such as this hare reveal a quirky, fierce quality that disappears by the mid 18th century. Later pieces become increasingly appealing, with sweeter less wild expressions.

6” high x 8” long x 4 7/8” deep.

EGGPLANTS LOVERS

Pair of kogo or incense containers in the form of nasubi or eggplants, one with a salamander in relief and one with a snail. Of uchidashi or hammered iron. One signed on the reverse of the box with the snail with a chiseled signature by the artist: Myochin Muneyoshi (Myochin Muneyoshi, died before 1781, per Robert E. Haynes' The Index of Japanese Sword Fittings and Associated Artists, volume 2, page 1244), and the other ornamented with a salamander signed on the reverse with a chiseled signature by the artist: Myochin Norimune Ason . Edo Period, mid 18th century.

2" high x 5" x 2.75", kogo with salamander. 2" high x 4.25" x 2 5/8", kogo with snail.

BURNING DOGY

Koro or incense burner in the form of a seated hound wearing a bell on a cord, of cast and cold chiseled yellow bronze. Early Edo Period, 17th century.
From the Azuchi-Momoyama into the Early Edo Period, it became fashionable for Daimyo to keep large numbers ofkara inu or foreign dogs of both the mastiff and hound types. Imported from the continent and from Europe many times, these foreign breeds were characterized by large bodies and dropped ears. Kept for both ornamental and hunting purposes,kara inu are depicted in byobu or decorative screens of the period but rarely became subjects for bronzes such as thiskoro. In the 19th century dogs became a popular subject in Japanese art, but the later depictions exclusively focus on native Japanese breeds such as the Akita inu or the imported Pekinese variety fashionable during Meiji.