Page 37 - 2021 March 16th Japanese and Korean Art, Christie's New York City

23 JINBO MIYABI (B. 1952)

Banka (Late Summer)

Signed Miyabi
12¬ in. (32.1 cm.) high
With original wood box titled Banka (Late
Summer), signed Jinbo Miyabi, sealed Miyabi
and dated 2016

$8,000-12,000

In Japan, hozuki (red lantern plant) is believed to
have sacred energy. Often displayed with ceremonial
utensils as obonfestival offerings, the plant serves to
guide the souls of the dead and lead ways for ancestors
to return home.
Since the Heian period (794–1185), the butterfly,
emblem of spiritual power, has been an important
motif in Japanese art. The brocade wrappers for a set of
twelfth-century Buddhist sutras dedicated by Retired
Emperor Toba (r. 1107–23) to Jingo-ji are applied with
butterfly-shaped metal bosses. In China, the words
for butterfly, hu die, are homophonic with multiple
characters with auspicious meanings of blessings,
good wealth and longevity.

Born in 1952, Jinbo Miyabi was trained under his father,
a wood sculptor specialized in single-block technique
(ichiboku-zukuri). Widely presented in solo and group
exhibitions in Japan, Jinbo is not only acclaimed for his
extraordinary wood carving skills, but also accredited
as a coloring expert.

神保雅 (B. 1952) 晩夏