Page 119 - Bonhams May 16, 2019 London Japanese Art

(signature)
190
AN EXQUISITELY CAST AND INLAID BRONZE HANAIKE
(FLOWER VASE) IN THE FORM OF A GOURD
By Shoami Katsuyoshi (1832-1908),
Meiji era (1868-1912), late 19th century
Modelled as a decaying gourd with mottled dark-brown patination,
supported on a base formed by an extremely long stem descending
from the mouth, twining around the body and trailing to the ground
where it sprouts three large vine leaves, a snake emerging from an
opening on the reverse watching a tree frog making its escape at
bottom left, other short curling tendrils draped across the front, details
of the leaves executed in variegated flat-relief inlays of bronze, gold
and shakudo, signed on the reverse with chiselled characters
Dai Nihon Okayama Shoami sen (Chiselled by Shoami, Okayama
in Great Japan). 33cm (13in) high.
£100,000 - 150,000
JPY15,000,000 - 22,000,000
US$130,000 - 200,000

Provenance
Sold at auction in Dorset, England in 2011.
Subsequently purchased for their collection by the present owners.

One of the greatest metalworkers of the Meiji era, Katsuyoshi was
born in Mimasaka Province (present-day Okayama Prefecture). He
received his early training from his father Nakagawa Katsutsugu, but
was adopted at age 18 by a local branch of the Shoami, a dynasty
of sword-fitting makers active all over Japan, and went on to work
for the Ikeda family in Bizen Province. Although he remained in his
home district for most of his career, he developed his practice by
studying with his older brother Nakagawa Issho, from whom he
absorbed something of the style of Issho’s teacher, the great Kyoto
master Goto Ichijo. With the onset of the Meiji restoration (1867-8) and
the Haitorei edict of 1876, which proscribed the traditional samurai
privilege of wearing two swords, Katsuyoshi lost his traditional sources
of patronage but soon became exceptionally successful at adapting
his skills to new kinds of production including tea-ceremony utensils,
flower vases such as this example, and incense burners, always
in an individual, creative style that remained largely independent of
metropolitan artistic convention.

Despite his provincial location, Shoami Katsuyoshi exhibited frequently
at major domestic and international expositions, garnering no fewer
than 28 awards. His works are featured in several important collections
of Meiji era art, including a silver incense-burner in the form of a
caparisoned Buddhist elephant in the Khalili Collection, a large group
in Kyoto’s Kiyomizu Sannenzaka Museum, and an iron hanging flower-
vase in the British Museum (inv.no.1969,0210.1, as illustrated on the
left page) formed as a gourd entwined with vine, leaves, a bird, insects,
and a snake in copper alloys with gold-inlaid details.

(190 - another side)

For details of the charges payable in addition to the final Hammer Price of each Lot
please refer to paragraphs 7 & 8 of the Notice to Bidders at the back of the catalogue. FINE JAPANESE ART | 117