Catalog (37)

Funa dansu of the kakesuzuri-type, with a single hinged front door.
Behind the door, there are two full width drawers, one half-width small drawer and two mid-size ones with iron locks.
The exterior of the chest is made of keyaki (Zelkova) wood, which is unusual. Drawers made of the softer, kiri wood with iron hardware. Wrought iron handle on the top of the chest. Door, corners and edges fitted with sturdy and very decorative ironwork, ornamental lock.
Bottom inscribed in black ink by carpenter.
Japan, 19th century

H 19 x W 16.25 x D 19.5 inches (48 x 41.4 x 49.5 cm)

Traces of usage (stains, dents, scratches), some of the iron hardware reattached or replaced or missing, 4 bottom slats re-attached or perhaps replaced at an earlier date. All damages acceptable as traces of usages. All replacements acceptable as necessary maintenance, while the chest was in practical use. All in all very good condition. NO KEYS.

Funa dansu are strong boxes used by sea men. They were used to carry business papers, money, writing supplies, seals and other personal things. They are small in comparison to chests that were used on land. The earlier ones are rather simple. The exterior of kakesuzuri-type ship’s chests was traditionally made of sugi (Cryptomeria) or kiri (Paulownia) wood. Kiri wood is fire resistant. Keyaki is much harder, and more expensive, and was more often used from the late Edo period on.
Due to the nature of their use, all funa dansu have traces of usage.

Sculpture of a long-nosed tanuki, walking with a hat on its back and a flask in its left paw. The piece is built around a large piece of root wood that comprises the torso, legs, the enlarged scrotum and tail. The head is a separate piece of root wood, the ears inserted. The sake flask is a small piece of root wood, and the hat is carved from a slab of a different wood species.

Hat and sake bottle are attached to the tanuki with braided silk cords.

Mingei.

Root wood with black staining.

Japan, Meiji-Taisho era early 20th century

H 15.5 in.

Thin cracks around the neck, where the head is attached to the body. Black stain is flaking. Other small chips and thin cracks commensurate with age and materials used. All in all, still in very good condition.

More images available upon request

Storage jar with tapering body, broad shoulder and slightly everted lip. Used for storing tea leaves.
Stoneware with some inclusions, pitted surface and natural ash glaze patches.

Iga ware, Mie Prefecture, Japan, Edo period, 17th or possibly a little later (early 18th century).

Comes with wooden storage box of a later date.

H 10-1/2 inches

Excellent condition

From the Collection of Osborne and Victor Hauge and their wives

Midsize storage jar, tsubo. Greyish brown stoneware, with the typical white stone inclusions, partially bursting out through the surface. The ashes in the wood burning kiln settled during the firing onto the surface of the pot and melted, creating the beautiful brownish yellow ash glaze. This is a natural process that cannot be controlled by the potter beyond the decision of placement within the kiln.

Japan, Edo period, 19th century or a bit earlier

H 11.25 inches

Very good condition

Rustic round platter, called ishizara in Japanese, used in kitchens and commoners’ households. Pale yellow glaze that typically leaves the foot free. The plate is slightly warped, as is common with ishizara. Seto ware, Edo period.

In the Meiji era this plate was additionally decorated in moriage technique with overglaze enamels that required lower kiln temperatures. Images is a warrior hare, dressed in more or less Chinese warrior dress, a spear and war-fan in his hands, a halo with three sacred jewels behind his head. He is in the company of a horned goblin with a war-club, together sitting on the back of a winged dragon-fish (Shachihoko).
Rim decorated with karakusa.

Mingei (folk art). Older ceramics, redecorated with appealing motifs were subsequently offered for sale to tourists who started traveling Japan in the Meiji era.

Japan, Edo period, 1800-1850 with Meiji era overglaze decoration.

H 2-2.25 x diam. 13.75 in.

Few underglaze chips in the rim of the platter, overpainted by the karakusa motif. The brown enamel on the dragon fish is irregular, but not flaking or chipping. All in all very good condition.

More photos available upon request

Sculpture of Daikoku sitting on a rice bale with a big grin on his face, spilling countless jewels (tama) from his treasure bag.
Keyaki (Paulownia) wood, carved in a slightly abstracted manner, called ittobori.
Unsigned. Mingei (folk art)
Japan, 19th century.

H ca. 11 x W 10½ in.

Tension cracks (consistent with material and age), several scuff marks, painters tape on bottom.

Daikoku is one of the seven gods of good fortune. He stands for good fortune and wealth. The rice bales (good harvest) and treasure bag are two of his typical attributes.

Storage jar with beautiful dark brown glaze drippings from the neck and shoulder down, over a dark brown stone ware with countless inclusions. Around the neck engraved with cross pattern. Shape somewhat distorted. Height 11 inches, width 10 inches. Two short cracks at the rim, one small chip at the rim, glaze partly rubbed due to extensive usage. Overall condition good. Japan 18/19th century.

Kanban or shop sign. The sign indicates that the store would sell or manufacture ornamental pin holders for the oars on a boat (ireko), in the shape of dolls. According to the sketch pasted to the back of the kanban, this holder is mounted on the oar and is placed over a pin mounted on the boat edge. The oar pivots around that pin, so that the oar moves the boat through the water.

The pin holders are decorated as a male and a female doll in court style, their mouths wide open. The words ireko ningyo are branded into the wooden board. On the back of the board paper label with a flying plover and the words ireko ningyo; another paper label shows the proper names of the different parts of a rowing oar. Ireko ningyo is almost a play of words. It means nesting dolls (doll in doll in doll), but it also means pin holder on an oar in the shape of a doll.
Wood with color pigments, iron nails. Mingei (folk art).

Japan, early 20th century.

Measurements: W 19 in.; H 8 to 10.75 in.

Paint virtually completely weathered away, upper part missing, old repairs with iron nails

Very rare. Simple wooden zushi with a figure of Fudo Myoo sitting on a high rock before a flaming halo. In his right hand he holds a sword, in his left a rope.
On lower levels of the rock formation sits Seitaka doji, holding his scarf in his left hand and a (now missing) club in his right, and stands Kongara doji, holding a lotus flower in his hands.

Light brown CLAY, hand modeled (not molded!), fired at low temperature, painted dark brown. Back of halo engraved with name of temple and donors? The rope in Fudo’s hand is twisted metal wire, the sword is made of clay and wood.
Country style, folk art. Probably late 19th century.

Height figure group 8 in. (20.8 cm), height box 11.25 in. (29 cm).
Paint is flaking here and there, pieces of the halo broken off and put back (best seen in photo of the back, where they show up as purple), some larger chips at bottom of base repaired. All in all good and stable condition.

Image of a heron in water in rice-paste-resist dying technique (tsutsugaki) on cotton. The color showing are coffee brown for the background and different shades of brown with white for the heron. The image mounted as a hanging scroll, which has been cut to fit into a frame. Meiji period, late 19th century. Mingei.
Cotton image: 11 ¾ x 8 ¾ in. Frame: 36 ¼ x 13 in.
Excellent condition.

Beautiful small wooden jizai, or pothook. This type is called Daikoku, after the shape of Daikoku’s hat. These hangers were suspended with a rope from a heavy beam, over the sunken hearth. From the hanger an adjustable hook was hung that held the kettle. Good piece of mingei.
Zelkova wood with rests of smut, especially in the grooves.
Japan, 19th century.
H 9.5; w 9.25; 2.75 inches.
Slight traces of usage, very good condition.

Mask made of kiri (Paulownia) wood, showing the wide-laughing and dimpled face of god of good fortune (shichifukujin), Daikoku. The base of his hat just sitting on the top of his head.

The broad grain of the wood was used to accentuate the round cheeks, nose and nostrils. The wood was formerly stained with a reddish-brown color, now almost completely worn off. Around the eyes there are remnants of a light-colored pigment.

There are two small holes in the top of the ears in which the attachment cords would have been fastened.

The mask was made perhaps for Kyogen, the comic interludes of a noh performance. Since it has folky characteristics, it may have been used in rural theaters, on village stages or by itinerant street performers.

Japan, 19th century

H 8.25 x W 7.5 in.

The mask comes with a black lacquered metal stand. H with stand 13 in.

Chips in the pigments on the front, unimportant chips in the wood on the edges on the back. All in all very good condition.

Sturdy storage jar for tea leaves or other goods with horizontally ribbed surface, sloping shoulder with very short neck. Coarse but dense clay with small inclusions. Outside middle brown with cream-colored and yellow natural ash glaze. Mingei.
Japan, 18th/19th century.

Height 7.5 inches, width 6 inches at the neck. Ash glaze partially rubbed off at upper edge and at the body commensurate with holding and using, otherwise very good condition.

Solid wooden folk art carving of a giant penis. Strapped around it are red and white twisted cotton cords (imenawash) with paper strips (gohei). Penises of this size were donated to Shinto shrines dedicated to fertility, in the hopes of getting pregnant. Or they were carried around during fertility festivals.

Cryptomeria (sugi) wood, red and white cotton, paper

Japan, 20th century

H 24.5 inches (62.2 cm)

Excellent condition

Keyaki (zelkova) wooden pulley, used to scoop water out of a well. Wooden wheel with forged iron block. The inside of the wheel groove (where the rope would run through), lined with a thin sheet of copper. Mingei.
Japan, 19th century

Diameter wheel 12.25 in.; height pulley and block 16.75 in.; thickness wheel 3 in., thickness block 6.5 in.

Keyaki wood with beautiful patina, some dents and scratches commensurate with usage, copper on wheel slightly damage due to usage, otherwise very good condition.

Sambaso dancer with the typical high hat (striped eboshi) with a sun disc (round circle) on each side. In his left hand he holds suzu jingle bells; his right hand, on his back, holds a fan. Single block carving (ichiboku); keyaki (zelkova) wood, carved in a faceted way, resembling ittobori, and stained dark brown.

Japan, Taisho era, 1910s-1920s.
H ca. 18 inches.
One repaired crack from the bottom going up into his left shoulder, some scuffs and chips at edges, several tension cracks. All in all very good and stable condition.

The dance Sambaso originated in noh (kyogen) theater, as a prayer for prosperity (abundant rice harvest) at the beginning of the program. The dance was adapted for kabuki and bunraku, as well. It was performed at the opening of the new kabuki season, which coincides with the beginning of the new year, or at the opening of a new theater.

Large and rustic almost round platter, called ishizara in Japanese, used in kitchens and commoners’ households. Plain light greenish-yellow glaze that typically leaves the foot free. The many pinpoint spots where the glaze did not completely cover the stoneware has allowed dirt to penetrate, giving the surface a lively spotted face. Glaze has dulled over time from constant usage.
Five spurmarks in the center.
Mingei

Seto ware, Japan, Edo period, 1800-1850

H 2.75 x W 14.5 x D 14 in.

Repaired chip on rim, one old chip under rim, several smaller scrapings and damages all commensurate with age and heavy usage. Fissures in the glaze that have no impact on stability, usability or visual appeal.

From a private collection of mingei ceramics in New Jersey

Small, sturdy platter, called ishizara, used as kitchen ware. Gray stoneware decorated with underglaze iron black and cobalt blue tama (sacred jewels) and characters, covered by a creamy, yellowish translucent and finely crackled glaze. Five spurmarks. Mingei.

Seto region, Japan, Edo period, 1800-1850

H 2 x Diam 10.5 in.

Several knicks and chips esp. on the rim edges and a short, old crack commensurate with age and heavy usage. All in all very good condition

From a private collection of mingei ceramics in NJ