Catalog (283)

Fahr-Becker, Gabriele (ed.), The Art of East Asia, English edition, Koenemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Cologne, 1999, 2 vols., 406pp and 407pp. 12 ½ x 10 ¾ in. (32 x 27.8 cm). Hardcover with dust jacket, in slipcase.
In these volumes the arts and cultures are discussed, richly illustrated in color, of China, Indonesia and the Champa Kingdoms (vol. I) and of the Kingdom of the Khmer, Thailand, Laos, Burma, Vietnam, Japan and Korea (vol. II). The focus of this book is clearly on China and Japan. Contributing authors are Sabine Hesemann, Michael Dunn, Gabriele Farh-Becker and Michaela Appel. The appendix includes Glossary of Chinese characters, Notes, Selective Bibliography, Picture Credits (vol. I) and Notes, Glossary, Index and Picture Credits (vol. II).
N.B. The German text edition came out in 1998.
Vol. I with minor traces of usage, vol. II. with dented corners at top. Case also with dented corner at top.

Eijer, Dieuwke, Kagamibuta, Mirrors of Japanese Life and Legend, The Baur Collection / Heinz Kaempfer Fund (Geneva / Leiden), 1994. 95 pages, numerous b/w and color illustrations. Extensive description of the history, materials, techniques of kagamibuta, its subject matter and kagamibuta makers, richly illustrated with excellent photos of pieces from the Baur Collection and from private collections. The appendix contains a list of kagamibuta makers with their signatures and biographic information.
New, in original shrink wrap.

Tall and massive porcelain vase in the shape of a double gourd, the lower section squared. Decorated in overglaze, traditional Kutani enamels (yellow, blue, green, red, purple and touches of gold) with medallions with thistles, grapes, fruits, butterflies, crickets. On bottom a traditional green square seal: Kutani Masao.

Japan, probably around 2000

H 10 x W 4.75 in.

Mint condition

Miyamoto Masao (b. 1971), son of renowned Kutani potter Miyamoto Tadao, graduated 1996 from Tokyo University of the Arts. In 1999 he was certified as a regular member of the Japan Crafts Association. He participated in several prestigious exhibitions and won awards. Masao works both in traditional Kutani shapes and colors and in more avant garde style. The kiln is called Shinseigama.

Flower vase with angular shoulder and angular hip, slightly curving in on the sides and standing on a bamboo node foot. Heavy but fine gray stoneware that turned reddish brown upon firing, covered with a celadon green glaze with curved striations made by tracing with his finger. The places where the glaze is scraped back to the stoneware, the clay turned red-brown during firing. Neck covered in cream-colored glaze, inside brown speckled glaze, all typical for Mashiko.

Mingei

Mashiko ware, Japan, late Showa or Heisei era

Vase unsigned

H 8 x diam ca. 4.25 in.

Mint condition

Comes with the original tomobako storage box. Cover inscribed on inside: Flower vase with design of finger-drawing in 2 colors and signed Kazuo with red seal Aki (in mirror image). Cover somewhat damaged.

Akiyama Kazuo (b. 1933) is an artist who started as a painter and changed to ceramic arts in 1960. Worked in the Mashiko tradition and has/had his own kiln.

A box for keeping incense – kogo – decorated with a carriage used by court nobles and members of the Imperial family of the past in dense gold dust sprinkle on a black lacquer background. The sky sprinkled with clouds of nashiji. Insides with dense nashiji. The bottom section decorated with a rock surrounded by bamboo in gold togidashi and kao of tea master Hisada Soya. Silver rims.

Tiny signature in gold lacquer on the bottom: Gaho.

The kogo was made for the tea master Hisada Soya for the use in the tea ceremony.

Kyoto, Japan, April 1994.

H ca 0.75 in. x Diam ca 3.4 in.

Comes with a double storage box. The outer lacquered in reddish brown. Paper label on the inside of the cover: A kogo (incense box) with a beloved Imperial carriage in makie, in imitation of an hinoki suzuribako possessed by Rikyu to commemorate the 1200th anniversary of the founding of the capital Heian in April 1994
Hanshôan Jingyûsai Sôya (Urasenke Tea master of the Hisada family)

The inner box signed on the bottom “Kyoto, Gaho”, and with artist’s seal “Gaho” and inscribed on the inside of the cover: Made by Gaho, Imperial carriage, kogo, Jingyusai.

Maehata Gahō (b. 1936) is a traditional Japanese lacquer artist who is well-known for making traditional, high-quality utensils for the Japanese tea ceremony, incorporating Rimpa school motifs in his lacquer works. He is the first son of Maehata Shunsai and the eighth head of the Maehata household. He received his training in lacquered tea utensils from Murata Dōkan, ishiji-nuri lacquer from Nakamura Chokan, and Kaga Maki-e from Hoya Bisei.

Hantokoan Jingyûsai Hisada Sôya (1925-2010) was the 12th tea master of the Hisada family in the Urasenke school tradition.

A mokko-shaped porcelain kogo incense burner, which is a square with each corner indented. The corners are so strongly indented that the shape becomes an octagonal. All sides are slightly bulging out and the cover is slightly domed, giving the whole a soft, rounded feel.

From the center of the cover, the surface has been divided into eight ‘cake slices’. The decoration in underglaze blue (sometsuke) runs continuously the center of the cover, with a small flower in the middle, to the bottom. Each slice has been decorated. Two slices with birds with a flower in their beaks, two with a landscape, four with geometric motifs.

Signature in underglaze blue: Tokusen.

H 2 x W 2.25 x D 2.25 in.

Excellent condition

Comes with the original wooden storage box, cover inscribed: shôzui hakkaku kogo (octagonal incense box), box signed on the side: Tokusen tsukuru and seal Tokusen.

Nishimura Tokusen III (1928-2007) was a famous potter from the Nishimura family in Kyoto. His grandfather opened the Tokusen-kiln on Gojosaka, which he took over. Tokusen trained under his father, Tokusen II, Kusube Yaichi and Kiyomizu Rokubei VI. However, given the seal on the box, it may be that this piece was not made by Tokusen III, but by Tokusen II. Nothing is known about him.

Ho, Wai-kam, Sherman E. Lee, Laurence Sickman and Mar F. Wilson, Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting. The Collections of the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art (and Indiana University Press) 1980. Hardcover with dustjacket.
Some wear and tear to dustjackets.

Hejzlar, Josef. Chinese Watercolours. London: Octopus Press 1980. Hardcover with dustjacket. Text ca. 60 pp., bibliography and index, 115 color illustrations of paintings on 96 pp. (photographed by B. Forman). About the members of the Shanghai school from the 19th and 20th century and their works.
Pages slightly yellowed, but all in all in very good condition with very little wear on the dustjacket

Small, round covered box for keeping incense, kogo in Japanese, in the shape of a coiled snaked. It’s head is in the center of the cover, protruding. Gray, coarse stoneware with small inclusions, the outside turned brown from the heat in the kiln. Eyes are inlaid rings of clay, giving the snake a slightly goofy expression.

Potter’s mark on the bottom of the lower section. Unidentified.

Possibly Tokoname ware.

H ca 1.5 x Diam ca 2.25 in.

Japan, Showa era, 1980s?

Small chip on the outer edge of the lower section; small chip on the outer edge of the cover

From the collection of Sandra Saltzman, New York

Kogo, box to keep incense, in the shape of a reclining boar, head and nose turned up. Red-brown stoneware with gray and pink glazes, typical for Hagi ware. Inside bottom and cover covered in gray glaze over pink.

Seal impressed in bottom: Tobei.

Japan, Hagi ware, ca. 1981

H 2 x L 3.25 x D 1.1 in.p> Perfect condition.

Comes with the original wrapping cloth with seal of the artist and with original tomobako inscribed Hagi inoshishi (boar) kogo, and signed Tobei XII with round seal of the artist.

Tahara Tobei 12th (1925-1992) worked in the town of Nagato in Yamaguchi Prefecture, not far away from the town of Hagi. He learned ceramics from his father and brother. Began ceramics in earnest after the war, and after the death of his brother (Tobei XI) inherited the Tobe name. In addition to the traditional Tahara family techniques and style, he studied Goryeo and Korean pottery, as well as Urasenke style tea ceremony, and devoted himself to making tea ware. He was declared an Important Intangible Cultural Asset by the Yamaguchi Prefecture in 1981.
Tobei XII made a series of kogo in the shape of the 12 signs of the animal zodiac.

Serving plate. Over a grayish brown stoneware a geometrical design in blue, brown and green glazes, partly with fine crackle. Unsigned, but clay, color and design remind one of Mashiko ware. Diameter 10 ¼ inches, height 2 inches. Japan, 2nd half 20th century. Slight traces of usage (tiny scratches and water stains), otherwise very good condition.

Schuster, Felicia and Cecilia Wolseley, Vases of the sea. Far Eastern porcelain and other treasures. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1974. Hard cover binding with dust jacket.
Book on vases from China and from Japan made of porcelain, bronze, jade and cloisonne, and also a chapter on ivory and on lacquer. Numerous color illustrations.
Few unimportant traces of usage on the dust jacket, all in all in near new condition.

Dorrington-Ward, Carol (ed.), Fans from the east. New York: Debrett's Peerage Limited/The Viking Press 1978.
Hard cover binding with dust jacket.
Essays on fans in China (Julia Hutt), Japan (Joe Earle), Southeast Asia (Nancy Armstrong) an on Chinoiserie with 29 color plates and 79 b/w illustrations.
Dust jackets with minor abrasions (shelf wear) and covers slightly warped.

Kabuto maedate, or ornament that sits in the front of the Japanese helmet. Dragonfly. Gilded iron. Japan, 20th century.
L ca. 6 ¾ inches.
Good condition, one leg damaged.

Vase or jar with globular body, standing on a short foot and with everting rim. Moon jar. Underglaze blue decoration of carp swimming in water. Signed and sealed. Bottom marked as well. Korea, late 19th or early 20th century.

Height 12 in., width 12 ½ in.

Mint condition

Ex coll. Peter K. Warren, CT

Small compact vase of irregular shape on a wide foot. Brown clay with white mineral and tiny pebble inclusions typical for Shigaraki and Iga ware, with green and white ash glaze over cross hatched pattern on the shoulder.
A small metal loop on the shoulder in the back to hang the vase from a beam in the tokonoma.

Bottom unglazed. Impressed seal of artist: Kozan.
Japan, Iga ware, Showa/Heisei, circa 1970s-1980s.

H 3-3/4 in., W 4-3/4 in.

Mint condition

Morisato Kozan (b. 1915). Well-known Iga ware potter

Large, relatively tall chawan, as used in the tea ceremony. Light brown coarse stoneware covered with a celadon colored translucent glaze with brown speckles and with a purple and blue-green splash on the front. Unsigned. Japan, Aizu, Fukushima prefecture, Japan, Showa era, circa 1973.
Comes with the original fitted wooden tomobako, inscribed on the outside … chawan; on the inside signed ‘made by Ryoichi, 7th generation of the Munakata kiln’ and with the seal Munakata-gama (Munakata kiln).

H 3-1/8 x Dia 4-1/2 inches

Perfect condition.

Munakata Ryoichi (b. 1933). For more information on the artist (in Japanese), see www.munakatagama.net

Wall vase for ikebana flower arrangement, to be hung at one of the vertical beams of the tokonoma. Brown stoneware with white inclusions, splash of greenish glaze. Metal eyelet through hole in the back for hanging the vase up (new replacement).
Signature in bottom: Jinsai.

Shigaraki ware, Japan, mid-20th century, before 1977, when Jinsai changed his name.

H 5 - 5-1/4 inches, diam 3-1/4 inches

Fine condition

Ogawa Jinsai was born in 1914 as the eldest son of the Ogawa Tokusai III, a master of Shigaraki ware. The family was founded in the late Edo period. The founder was a master at replicating ancient Iga warea and was invited by the Todo clan in Iga to make such warea. In 1977 Jinsai took over the family business and became head of the family, changing his name to Tokusai IV. He made tea and sake wares, firing in a traditional cellar kiln. He passed away late Showa/early Heisei era.