Page 96 - Fine Japanese Art November 29, 2019 Galerie Zacke

83 | MICHIZUKI HANZAN:
AN IMPORTANT ‘BIWA LUTE’
RYOSHIBAKO DOCUMENT BOX
By Michizuki Hanzan (1743-1790), signed Ritsuo with seal Kan
Japan, ca. 1770-1790, Edo period (1615-1868)
Published: Stephen Little and Edmund J. Lewis, View of the
Pinnacle: Japanese Lacquer Writing Boxes: The Lewis Collection of
Suzuribako. University of Hawai’i Press, 2011, catalogue number 54.

Three-dimensional depiction of a four-stringed Biwa lute in high
relief amid red and white chrysanthemum, their vines and leaves.
The lute is executed with braided silver strings, superb mother-
of-pearl inlays on a black ground with a circumferential filigree
border, a hinoki wood corpus with its sides in gold nashij and the
neck of the lute cleverly extending beyond the edge of the lid well
into the sides of the box. The flowers are made of porcelain with
polychrome glazes of emerald green, tsuishu red, egg yolk yellow
and white.
Signed in gold RITSUO with pottery seal Kan - the usage of this
inscription together with a white seal indicates that this work is
by Michizuki Hanzan (1743-1790), a direct pupil of Ogawa Haritsu
(1663-1747).
SIZE 40.5 x 32 x 14 cm
Condition: Very good and absolutely original condition. The
background with intentional crackling and few minuscule losses,
some of them touched-up, the largest being on the left side of the
signature. Very minor losses of lacquer to the edges of the inside.
Provenance: Ashkenazie & Co, San Franscisco, USA, 1996. Drs.
Edmund and Julie Lewis, Chicago, USA, acquired from the above.
Old collector label “Lewis Collection 76” to base.
Little and Lewis have noted that the present lot is most likely by
Michizuki Hanzan (1743-1790), but that there also is a distant
possibility that it is by Sakai Kyozan or Miura Kenya.

Estimate EUR 8.000,-
Starting price EUR 4.000,-

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