Page 23 - September 21 2021 Important Japanese Art Christie's NYC

Jizai sculpture of birds represents the eagle, raven, rooster,
pheasant, pigeon, quail and cormorant. Among these, the
eagle is the rarest. To date, only four articulated models of
eagles––the present lot and three others––are known. In
addition to the eagle here is one in a French private collection
that was exhibited at the Tokyo National Museum in 1983.
Another, signed Myochin Kiyoharu and dated eighteenth
century, is in the Tokyo National Museum. The fourth
eagle, signed by Itao Shinjiro in an Asian private collection
that was exhibited at the Tokyo University of the Arts
Museum in 2016.
According to Harada Kazutoshi, the eagle offered here
can be attributed to Itao Shinjiro on the basis of an old
document describing the work. Itao Shinjiro was born in
1842 in Wakayama Prefecture and moved to Kokawamachi,
Higashi-ku, Osaka around 1890–91 (see, Shimomura
Hidetoki, “Kiko Itao Shinjiro den––osorubeki dento
gijutsu no tososhi” [The Life and Career of Itao Shinjiro––
The Revolt of an Eccentric Artist against Traditional
Handicraft Techniques], Museum 152, Tokyo National
Museum, 1963). Shinjiro excelled in casting, chiseling and
hammering metal. His jizai eagle was selected for exhibition
at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.
Other jizai works by Itao Shinjiro include lobsters, crabs
and dragons. He extended his skills at articulated animals
to a small, moving model of a steamship for which he drew
high praise.
Like the great range of motion of the living eagle, this
sculpture rotates at the neck and extends the wings and
tail feathers. It also has a movable beak and claws. All these
movements are remarkably smooth. The mechanism that
allows the parts to move is fascinating. The elaborateness
of the mechanism that gives the present eagle its marvelous
naturalistic qualities demonstrates the advancements in
articulated sculpture achieved by metalsmiths of the caliber
of Itao Shinjiro in the late nineteenth century.

Above right:
An article about Itao Shinjiro’s iron
articulated sculpture of an eagle shown
at the World’s Columbian Exposition,
Chicago (1893), published in the New York
Herald newspaper
Below right:
Giuseppe Castiglione (Italian; 1688-1766).
White Hawk. China. 1765. Collection of the
National Palace Museum, Taipei