Page 60 - The Meiji Aesthetic Christie's Hong Kong.pdf

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AN IRON ARTICULATED SCULPTURE OF A CARP Traditional Japanese armor employs numbers of hammered iron
EDO PERIOD (19TH CENTURY), SIGNED MYOCHIN YOSHIHISA plates all individually shaped and riveted together. These are
The iron carp constructed of numerous hammered plates jointed carried on a fexible body of rows of small plates laced together
inside the body, the body bends and, the fns move, the details of fns loosely with silk braid so as to allow freedom of movement. The
and scales fnely chiseled, eyes inlaid in shibuichi; incised signature on technology for making such armor were adapted by the Myochin
on underside makers for extraordinary articulated iron model animals, such as the
15√ in. (40.3 cm.) long present carp.

HK$550,000-700,000 US$71,000-90,000 Yoshihisa is one of the Myochin artists based in Echizen province
and exclusively worked for the Echizen Matsudaira clan. Originally
known as armorer, he was also skilled at making sword fttings and
EXHIBITED
Preparatory Offce of the National Headquarters of Taiwan other iron utensils in unusual format. He is especially famous for
Traditional Arts, “Japan Arts of Meiji Period; Asia-Pacifc Traditional his articulated sculpture of carp fsh. For articulated carps signed by
Arts Festival Special Exhibition,” 2011.7.8-2012.1.8, cat. p. 105. Yoshihisa in The Okura Shukokan Museum of Fine Arts, Tokyo
“Meiji Kogei: Amazing Japanese Art,” shown at the following and Fukui Prefectural Museum of Cultural History, see Harada
venues: Tokyo University of the Arts Museum, 2016.9.7-10.30. Kazutoshi, ed., Jizai okimono / Articulated Iron Figures of Animals,
Hosomi Museum, Kyoto, 2016.11.12-12.25. Kawagoe City Art Rokusho 11, special edition (2010), pl. 35 and 36.
Museum, 2017.4.22-6.11, cat. no. 9.
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. 340-343.