Antique Japanese choba tansu, merchant's storage chest. This front of this tansu is made all of keyaki (elm) wood with original translucent lacquer finish and dramatic grain. The top portion has 2 sliding panels. The middle portion of the chest has a pair of large sliding panels which open to a compartment with one shelf...
Width: 6.1 cm (2.4 in)
Height: 3.8 cm (1.4 in)
Fine miniature footed lidded Satsuma pot; top decorated with an outdoor family group behind a canopy; very fine gilt diaper borders and legs; continual foliage decoration to the sides; internal depictions of family groups; signed Kaizan; excellent condition
Furoshiki (Wrapping Cloth), Indigo-dyed with reinforced sashiko-embroidered corners. Additional center reinforcement panel. A few areas of repair mending and some small holes (please see detail images.)Early 20th Century. 79"(201cm) x 74"(188cm.) The contemporary image of furoshiki brings to mind a pleasantly printed small cloth the size of large handkerchief, used for wrapping one's bento (lunch box) or a small gift when visiting a friend...
Antique Japanese large single section mizuya (kitchen chest) with 8 wide drawers. Made with all fine-grain hinoki (Japanese cypress) wood on the front and frame. Each drawer has iron corner brackets, hirute shaped drawer pulls and square lock plates.
Age: Meiji Period (1868-1912)
Dimensions: 37 1/2" high x 74" wide x 21" deep
A very rare antique Japanese Funa Tansu (captain's ship chest) made of Keyaki (Zelkova) and Kirinoki (Paulownia) woods with a Urushi lacquer finish. All original hand made iron fittings with strapping over the top, sides and back of the chest. Unusual bottom hinged door design where the right door opens to two drawers behind and the left pho hinged door slides across revealing a small drawer and another pho drawer. This pho drawer is actually a cover that hides a Kirinoki wood pull out box...
Early 19th century small Japanese porcelain Imari plate with enamel decoration of a boy wearing haori (short jacket) with a basket full of greens on his back sitting on a buffalo and playing a flute. The subject is bokudo - a theme of a perfect peace of mind, and one of the stages of a journey towards Buddhahood. Underglaze blue decoration in cavetto and on the outside...
Fine Large Edo Period Japanese Tobacco Pipe (Kiseru) from the collection of a renowned author on and collector of Asian art. This imposing, oversized pipe of bamboo and bronze with its striking phoenix would have been smoked by a man of prestige, and the effect would have been quite intimidating. Acquired in Kyoto in 1985 by a renowned author on and collector of Asian art. 9 5/8 inches, 24.5 cm long. Very Good Condition.
Pair of Inari Foxes of sculptured and fired clay with luminescent powered white glaze. In traditional Japanese art, a pair of foxes typically flank the deity Inari’s shrine image. But in modern times, images of Inari have all but disappeared, replaced instead by images of Oinari’s messenger, the magical shape-shifting fox (kitsune 狐). Here the symbolism is two-fold. First, rice
is sacred in Japan, closely associated with fertility (the pregnant earth) and with sustaining life...
Let's continue with another treasure: rounded wan-shaped tea bowl with high foot of the bamboo node style. The body pinched in at the middle to a shape called tojinbue (Chinese flute). The light, little coarse clay with enclosures is expertly thrown and full glazed - incl. the foot - with a transparent glaze of wood ash with some feldspar over a white engobe in hakeme style. The glaze shows a fine little crazing over the engobe, which is just amazing...
19th century good size angel skin coral ojime (slide bead for tightening the cord going from netsuke to inro) of simple ball shape. Rather unusual material, nice patina on the surface, few beautiful very slight pink areas. Diameter 5/8 inches.
This homemade Japanese tool was used in rural areas for cutting the groove in the tree to release and collect the sap which was harvested for the lacquerware. The wood handle is smooth to touch and has years of patina. The cutting blade is heavily aged but is in good condition.
The tool is about 9" long and at least 150 years old.
Here is a beautiful but unsigned Namikawa Sosuke vase. Those familiar with Sosuke's work, will know this vase was made by the master and is authentic. It's a stoutly made piece with silver rims. It stands 6 1/4 inches tall. This vase is in excellent condition. I have also provided an image of a later made, but very similar signed Sosuke vase.
Antique Japanese small Kiri (paulownia) tansu with seven drawers, each with warabite handles and round lock plates. All original condition and finish hardwood.
Meiji period (1868-1912)
Size: 23.5" L x 15.5" W x 27.5" H
Good size 18th century netsuke of a standing sennin (Chinese sage) in a long robe and a leaf cape, carrying on his shoulder a Chinese boy who plays a short trumpet. The netsuke is probably a joke on the subject of bokudo, which is typically depicted as a boy seated on the back of a buffalo and playing a flute - a theme of a perfect peace of mind, and one of the stages of a journey towards Buddhahood....
Japanese Millefleur Cloisonne Vase Meiji Period
Description & Size: 19.05 x 10.16 cm (7.5" x 4") height & wide; Weight: 450 gram (15.87 oz)
Age: Meiji Period Circa: 1890'; Production: Handcrafted; Material: Cloisonné & Brass
This Japanese cloisonné vase is an old & nicely crafted by the cloisonné master of the late or early 19th. It's designed with multiple colors in a large millefleur style with a moth grayish stone background...
An antique Japanese Jizai (hearth hook) used above an Iron (fire hearth) and hung beneath the house rafter to support a rope and hook or a Jizai Kagi (adjustable hook) to hold a kettle or large teapot above the burning charcoal. The main body is carved from one solid piece of Keyaki (Zelkova) wood...
An antique Japanese Zeni Bako (money safe) made of Keyaki (Zelkova) and Suginoki (Cryptomeria) woods. Top cover is secured with an iron lock and serves a dual purpose. When closed, a slot is apparent for dropping coins into the box. When opened, the retrieval of the coins becomes convenient as well as keeping safe and storing paper money, IOUs, and financial bonds and certificates. A bottom drawer was often used to store writing paper, writing brushes and an inkstone...
Wonderful Mishima chawan with irregular form, made around the end of Edo, surely during the early Meiji period.
The first mention of the Mishima style comes in Eiroku 8 (1565) in a tea diary. Yet the mi kanji recorded in this diary is that for "to see," while the city of Mishima uses the kanji for "three," its whole meaning being "Three Islands." Some scholars therefore believe that the Mishima for which the pottery is named is derived from an island off the coast of Yamaguchi call...