Antique Japanese tansu with 7 exterior drawers of various sizes. The lower right hand side has a safe box door with 2 small interior drawers. Made all of kiri (paulownia) wood. Hardware includes warabite shaped drawer pulls, heavy lock plates and hinges.

Meiji Period (1868-1912)

Dimensions: 23 1/2" high x 28 1/2" wide x 14 1/4" deep.

Rare Antique Japanese kuruma or wheeled tansu chest of drawers, constructed with solid quartered sawn Keyaki (zelkova) hardwood in original red lacquer finish, with decorative heavy iron plates and mounts. The upper section of the piece appears to hold two long drawers behind a locking bar, but is really four drawers. The lower section has two long drawers behind another locking bar, each bar with decorative plating...

A perfect example of the Early Edo Tea aesthetic in this Chatsubo dating from the first half of the Edo period, a splash of black over rust with a white glazed waste from the Seto region around modern day Nagoya. It comes with an ancient wooden bung and wrapping cloth. The pot is roughly 27 cm (11 inches) tall and in overall excellent condition, with typical wear around the foot. No cracks or repairs...

This expertly crafted Chawan was made by great contemporary artist Kobayashi Takeharu, born in 1944. It is an elegant example of the beauty of Shino ware, a four hundred year old tradition that has produced some of the most spectacular tea ceremony vessels. This is a sober yet enchanting piece that craves to be held and used. It comes with its originally signed and sealed wooden box and a profile of the potter.

Kobayashi Takeharu has exposed all over Japan...

Shima-cho, a sample book of cotton stripes and checks (check pattern was also called "shima" before. Some has both stripes and kasuri. Mostly vegetable indigo dyed but some of colored warps are chemical and some fragments are machine woven. 40 pages with 613 fragments. In excellent condition. Meiji (1868~1912) 24.5cm x 18.5cm x 2.5cm

Stunning original 17th century Japanese Amida Buddha statue, gold gilt over wood with inlaid crystal on his third eye and his crown chakra. He stands on an open lotus pedestal atop a circular step base, his hands performing the virtaka mudras. Behind him is a canopy of lingzhi smoke and 7 boddhisatvas seated in the heavens...

A beautiful stand mounted Japanese architectural (corbal) carving of ocean waves. One of this detail and design would have been built into the architecture of a temple. The carving is highly stylized with large openwork areas. The Keyaki (zelkova) woodgrain is visible on the reverse of the carving. Mounted on black iron plates.

Mid Edo Period (1603 - 1868)

Dimensions: 32" L x 3 1/2" D x 17 1/4" H, 13" H carving only

A vest made of wash, Japanese handmade paper made from mulberry fiber and vegetable indigo dyed katazome (stencil-resist-dye) pattern. It is made in Toriyama in Tochigi prefecture, north of Kanto Plane. Washi has been made in the region from about 700 years ago. It is made by Fukuda Washi Producer. In excellent condition. Contemporary. 66cm x 77cm

Shima-cho, a sample book of cotton stripes. It has more than 600 fragments, mostly hand-spun and vegetable dye but some warps are chemical dye and also some fragments have silk threads. The second half of the 19th century. In good condition but some fragments are mildewy. 38 pages. 18.5cm x 13cm x 2cm

Antique Japanese album with 12 pages of paintings depicting one large scene of rural life. A woman with a child carries lunch to workers in rice paddies. A man and ox plow a field of grain. Two men chat as they peddle an irrigation apparatus while a child looks on. At a mill, men sift and grind grain. Many other charming vignettes, including a man with a monkey. Painted in mineral pigments and sumi ink on paper with gold leaf and square flecks. Bound in silk with dragons...

Very unusual Japanese silk and gold thread hand-embroidered triptych of the Buddhist deity Kannon, the bodhisattva of compassion, in eight armed form seated in meditation upon an open lotus. In her eight arms she holds a staff, a trident, a bow and arrows, a Dharma wheel, and a wish granting jewel held out in front of her body. To the left and right of the central deity are large embroidered Sanskrit characters for meditative purpose...

Very unusual largeJapanese rope embroidery on silk, the image is a pair of phoenixes, male and female, with the moon waxing and waning (full and crest). This is a privileged image made specially for the court. The pagoda shrine is central to the image centered around the imperial Tokugawa crest symbolizing the divine rule from heaven.

Meiji period (1868-1912)

Dimensions: 40" W x 62 1/4" H (entire frame), 36 1/2" W x 58 1/2" H (embroidery without frame)

Massive Meiji period Japanese Satsuma globular form tripod jar or “koro” (incense burner) in the form of a gathered pouch (Daikoku's bag), the bulbous body elaborately decorated in overglaze enamels and gilt highlights with “karako” (Chinese children) and other figures engaged in various leisure and scholarly activities in a garden setting. Late 19th century. 17” high x 16 1/2" diameter. Good overall condition with some typical rubbing of the enamels and gilt...

Japanese 3 section kimono tansu, made with Kiri (paulownia) wood in its original, natural finish. The top unit has three medium size drawers underneath two sliding panels. The left upper compartment with single shelf and the right upper compartment with the two smallest drawers below a shelf space. The two lower sections are comprised of 3 drawers each.

Taisho period (1912-1925)

Dimensions: 45 3/4" L x 16" D x 61" H

A set of figurines depicting a courtly Chinese couple by Miyanaga Tozan enlclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Choan no Haru from the Tang period tales. Each is expertly molded and painstakingly decorated in a Kyo-satsuma style signed in gold on the base of each. They stand roughly 13 inches (33 cm) tall each and are in excellent condition. The title calls to mind any number of ancient Chinese poems...

A young girl reaches up to steady herself on a branch laden with plum buds, not yet ready to open, as she presses down on the ice with her bright red shoes. This is an absolutely darling image by Chishima Kayo, which came to us as a silk makuri (never having been mounted) painting, which our restorer placed in this natural field allowing the painting to show itself.
Chishima Kayo (b. 1890) was a female artist of the Meiji to early Showa periods...

Free of any loss or repair, this beautifully enameled vase on a copper base stands some 7-1/2 inches in height. Wonderfully elegant and understated.

Bamboo tray handmade of bamboo strips. It is for uchiwa fan to be put in, which is one kind of fan used in hot summer. In excellent condition except for a loose strip in the bottom of th oval part. 20th century. 28cm x 33cm x 2.5cm