Page 59 - Bonhams May 2017 London Fine Japanese Art

OTHER MILITARIA
Another Property

120 In 2006 The Metropolitan Museum of Art purchased another example,
A RARE AND UNUSUAL KAZARIZAME (MOUNTED RAYSKIN) so similar in style and size to the present lot that it must have been
Edo period (1615-1868), late 18th/early 19th century prepared by the same craftsman and was perhaps even part of the
Of typical waisted and convex form, having a wood core, covered by same set, the only significant differences being the shapes of the
a single piece of rayskin, displaying varying grades of same visible openings revealing the rayskin (inv. no. 2006.177a–d); a slightly less
through five variously shaped cut-outs ringed by raised gold thread elaborate example is reproduced in V. F. Weber, Koji Hoten, Dictionnaire
in tightly bound gold and silk brocade of various formal designs. à l’usage des amateurs et collectionneurs d’objets d’art Japonais et
51.5cm (20 3/8in) long. Chinois, Paris, 1923, vol.2, p.244 (fig.244). The whole subject of rayskin
and its place in Edo culture is admirably discussed in a recent article by
£3,000 - 5,000 Christine M. E. Guth: ‘The Aesthetics of Rayskin in Edo-period Japan:
JPY410,000 - 690,000 Materials, Making and Meaning’, Impressions, 37 (2016), pp.88-107.
US$3,700 - 6,200

Same (rayskin or shagreen) was highly esteemed in seventeenth- and
eighteenth-century Japan. In addition to their familiar use as a practical
and decorative covering for sword handles, fine pieces of same were
sometimes specially mounted for display as kazarizame or kazari
arazame; a number of such mounted samples were reproduced in Koi
seigi (Discourse on Rayskin, 1785; translated by Henri L. Joly in 1913
as part of The Sword and Same). Written by Inaba Tsuryu (much better
known to collectors for Soken kisho, his 1781 book on sword-fittings
and netsuke), Koi seigi illustrates a number of kazarizame, including
one quite similar to the present lot (part 1, p.27).

For details of the charges payable in addition to the final Hammer Price of each Lot FINE JAPANESE ART | 57
please refer to paragraphs 7 & 8 of the Notice to Bidders at the back of the catalogue.