Imao Keinen (1845-1924)
Crow and Flowering Cherry
Date: ca. 1930
Size: Approximately 15.0 x 7.5 inches.
Publisher: Shima Art.
Provence: Purchased directly from the Robert O. Muller estate.
"Made in Japan" stamped on verso.
Medium: Japanese woodblock print.
Condition. Excellent. Uncirculated.

Japanese woodblock print depicting a lone leafless tree at dusk set against a gold leaf background titled "Evening View (Dusk)" by Joichi Hoshi (1913-1979). Pencil-signed "Joichi Hoshi" and dated '77 at the lower right, with the artist's square red seal above. Pencil-titled in kanji at the lower left and numbered 43/99. A penciled inscription on the upper back reads "8408 S-1 12/12" and the original price of 100,000 yen is at the bottom of the back...

A pair small cloisonné enamel vases with roundels containing flowers or butterflies amidst spiral shaped wire ground, some highlights in goldstone. Gilt wires, rim and base. Signed "Takahara". Condition: fine. Dimension: c. 9.8 cm high.

The dreamlike quality which gave Taisho period art its unique flavor is readily apparent in this sumptuous composition by Kido Soi featuring long tailed birds along a tumbling stream. Pigment on silk mounted on applied gold flake in a silk border with a red lacquer wooden frame consistent with the era. It is signed in gold, Shunyo, the name used by Kido Soi in his youth, placing the screen easily before 1930...

Red lacquer and gold sakazuki / sake cup, a ceremonial wine cup. Between the arms of the cross are Japanese signs of good luck. Signed on the back, within the foot rim. Diameter "3 ¼ / 8 cm. Condition: some damp stains (cf. pics).

Cup and saucer with decoration of pine trees and flowers in Imari colours and gilt. Japan, Arita c 1920, with mark for Aoki Brothers / Aoki Kyodai-Shokai. Diameter of saucer "5 ¾ / 14.3 cm, height of cup "1 ¾ / 4.5 cm. Condition: rim of cup with small glaze bubble.

Lavender clouds, rain on a foggy morning, snowy mountain landscapes, this is what comes to your mind when you look on this superb pale kurinuki Hagi tea bowl, made by Master and potter legend Kaneta Masanao, enclosed in the original signed wooden box.

Kurinuki is a technique carving and scooping out forms from a solid block of clay to produce boldly-cut forms, an approach the artist is famous for. Kaneta Masanao is an 8th generation Hagi potter...

A Yuteki Tenmoku Koro with wooden lid surmounted by a stone finial by Kimura Moriyasu enclosed in the original signed wooden box. It is 5 inches (12.5 cm) diameter and in excellent condition.
Kimura Moriyasu (b. 1935) studied pottery initially at the Kyoto Ceramics Research Facility (which turned out such masters as Hamada Shoji and Kawai Kanjiro) and then under his brother Kimura Morikazu. He is well known for his use of crawling and oil spot glazes...

A misshapen bowl excavated and assembled from several pieces using the kintsugi gold technique. Originally a kiln flaw, it was likely destroyed after creation, later to be excavated and assembled as was popular in the later Edo period. Misshapen,and with a large kutsuki on one side, it is 4 x 5 x 3 inches (10 x 12.5 x 8 cm) and comes in a wooden box.

Japanese woodblock print by Okiie Hashimoto (1899-1993). # 2/60 in its series, titled "Quiet B (Nagasaki)", signed in pencil. Red cartouche in upper righthand corner.

Hashimoto was born off the coast of the Tottori Prefecture of Japan in 1899. He graduated from the College of Art in Tokyo in 1923 and continued his studies under Itaru Tanabe and Shod Hirata...

An incredible organic form, the delicate petals appearing to waft in some tide by Shingu Sayaka enclosed in the original signed wooden box. A closed bud on the side is lined with hundreds of tiny sharp needles in black. It is 6 x 5 x 4 inches (15 x 13 x 10 cm) and in excellent condition.
Shingu Sayaka was born in Osaka, the industrial and commercial heartland of central Japan, in 1979...

Japanese woodblock print of a black cat with piercing blue eyes. Titled "Black Cat", # 24/100 in its series, signed T. Nishida in pencil with red chop.

Tadashige Nishida was born in 1942 on Amami Oshima Island in Japan, where he studied art at Chiba University. He moved to Spain in the 1960s and later to the United States to study as a post-graduate. He is most well-known for his works depicting cats, though he has released works depicting nature scenes of trees and Mt. Fuji...

Japanese woodblock print by Okiie Hashimoto (1899-1993). # 2/60 in its series, titled "Quiet A (Nagasaki)", signed in pencil. Red cartouche in upper righthand corner.

Hashimoto was born off the coast of the Tottori Prefecture of Japan in 1899. He graduated from the College of Art in Tokyo in 1923 and continued his studies under Itaru Tanabe and Shod Hirata...

Japanese abstract colored woodblock print - titled "Round About Midnight no. 5", 4/50 in its series, dated 1977, signed Maruyama Hiroshi (b. 1953-) in pencil.

Dated 1977

Dimensions: 21 1/2" x 31 1/4"

A bizarre pottery mass of two tea bowls and a stand fused together after collapsing in the kiln some four hundred years ago. It is 17 x 13 x 11 cm (6-1/2 x 5 x 4-1/2 inches). There is something to be said here about best laid plans. All the potters craft and experience and yet nature intervenes, creating this vitrified sculpture for later generations to contemplate.

A rare okimono from the Kairakuen Kiln of the Tokugawa branch family dating from the early to mid 19th century. The box label attributes these to Eiraku (presumably Hozen, who was tasked with helping to further the ceramic production of the kiln). The rooster is roughly 7 inches tall the same in length (18 cm). Dating from the later Edo period, they come in an old wooden box with a cloth cover and are in excellent condition...

One of three vessels by avant garde potter Kumakura Junkichi enclosed respectively in their original signed wooden boxes...

Large and only slightly distorted full cylinder shaped Tsutsu (hight is bigger than diameter) tea bowl with a rounded brim, made of reddish, unrefined Mino clay with clearly visible finger marks on the wall.

The expertly thrown body was trimmed with a potter's knife around the regular food ring. In the style of Seto-Kuro bowls this bowl was covered with a black glaze.

On three sides a round space was spared from black glaze. The unglazed areas were decorated with the aoi-m...