Page 28 - The Meiji Aesthetic Christie's Hong Kong.pdf

明心匠治：亞洲私人收藏明治時代精品
THE MEIJI AESTHETIC: SELECTED MASTERPIECES FROM A PRIVATE ASIAN COLLECTION

3811
AN IRON ARTICULATED SCULPTURE OF A LONG SNAKE
EARLY 20TH CENTURY, SIGNED MUNEYOSHI (TANAKA TADAYOSHI; ?-1958)
The russet-iron snake constructed of numerous hammered plates jointed inside the body, the head incised with scales
and ftted with a hinged jaw, gilt eyes, signature on underside of jaw
81√ in. (208 cm.) long
HK$1,600,000-2,400,000 US$205,000-308,000

EXHIBITED
Preparatory Offce of the National Headquarters of Taiwan Traditional Arts, “Japan Arts of Meiji Period; Asia-Pacifc
Traditional Arts Festival Special Exhibition,” 2011.7.8-2012.1.8, cat. pp. 106-107.
“Meiji Kogei: Amazing Japanese Art,” shown at the following venues: Tokyo University of the Arts Museum,
2016.9.7-10.30. Hosomi Museum, Kyoto, 2016.11.12-12.25. Kawagoe City Art Museum, 2017.4.22-6.11. cat. no. 6.

LITERATURE
Kuo Hong-Sheng and Chang Yuan-Feng, chief eds. et al., Meiji no bi / Splendid Beauty: Illustrious Crafts of the Meiji
Period (Taipei: National Taiwan Normal University Research Center for Conservation of Cultural Relics, 2013), pp.
298-303.

This is the work of Tanaka Tadayoshi, a modern metal artist active in the Taisho and Showa periods. He
apprenticed in the Kyoto workshop of Takase Kozan (1869-1934), who directed the studio creating articulated
sculptures for both domestic and international markets. Tadayoshi was known as a master of articulated sculptures
especially of large scale, such as the present lot.
For a similar work signed by Muneyoshi in the British Museum, see Harada Kazutoshi, ed., Jizai okimono /
Articulated Iron Figures of Animals, Rokusho 11, special edition (2010), pl. 12.

Fig. 1. Sacred rope (shimenawa) and paper streamers (shide) at Kumano Fig. 2. Anonymous. Uga Benzaiten (detail). Japan. Muromachi period,
Hongu Taisha Shrine, Wakayama Prefecture. May 2, 2012. Photo: 15th century. Image of Ugajin, depicted as a coiled white snake resting
Koike Takashi, Japan. on the head of Uga Benzaiten.
圖一 和歌山縣熊野本宮大社內之注連縄及紙垂 圖二 作者不詳，〈宇賀弁財天〉（局部），日本，室町時代，15世紀
宇賀神，白蛇身盤卷宇賀弁財天頭上