Here we see a Chinese style celadon floral bowl by one of the 5 Imperial Court Artists of Meiji. The potter, Sozan, spent his life perfecting techniques for celadon production first used in the Southern Song Dynasty as evidenced here with his powdery blue “kinuta” glaze. The low-relief floral design really brings an elegance to this work and the celadon glaze seems to have an inner radiance all its own.

Sozan (the first) was born in an area of what is known today as ...

The craftsman who fashioned this piece, the 9th Ohi Chozaimon (1901-1986), is the most widely recognized and most accomplished of the now 11 generations of Ohi potters. Born in Ishikawa Prefecture at the start of the 20th century, he took up the family craft and, at the age of 26, became the head potter. Raku tea bowls made by Ohi 9 are some of the finest you will encounter, comparing favorably to even tea bowls made by the main Raku lineage in Kyoto. The lightness of the clay, the s...

Sometime around the year 1600 the first Takatori kiln was constructed at the foot of Mt Takatori in Fukuoka. This tradition was based on styles created by Korean potters brought to the shores of Japan during its colonial expansionism of the late 16th century. A favorite of the Kuroda lords of the time, its production and use was closely guarded until later in the 19th century when the domain system was abolished, freeing it up to be more widely used. Though Takatori-ware has been admired by many...

Kawase Hasui
Snow at Koshigaya
Size: Oban. Approximately 15.375 x 10.25 inches.
Date: 1935. First edition.
Publisher: Watanabe Shozaburo. Publisher's "E seal" (used 1932-42) in right margin.
Signed and sealed by the artist.
Reference: Hotei #353
Medium: Japanese woodblock print.
Condition: Slight toning. Bump at tip of lower left margin corner.

Large Indian Tantric painting on cotton showing a yogi with both hands raised his body with 5 chakras. Extensive text inscriptions. Minor tears, bottom edge frayed. Undated, estimated to be late 19th early 20th cent. Can be viewed in central London and shipped worldwide.

Hasui Kawase
Kasuga Shrine, Nara
Series: Collection of Scenic Views of Japan II, Kansai Edition.
Size: Oban. 15.375 x 10.25 inches.
Date: 1933
Publisher: Watanabe Shozaburo. Publisher's 6mm seal (printed 1946-1957).
Reference: Hotei #317.
Medium: Japanese woodblock print.
Condition: Slight toning. Excellent color.

Tall and massive porcelain vase in the shape of a double gourd, the lower section squared. Decorated in overglaze, traditional Kutani enamels (yellow, blue, green, red, purple and touches of gold) with medallions with thistles, grapes, fruits, butterflies, crickets. On bottom a traditional green square seal: Kutani Masao.

Japan, probably around 2000

H 10 x W 4.75 in.

Mint condition

Miyamoto Masao (b. 1971), son of renowned Kutani potter Miyamoto Tadao, graduated 1996 from...

Kawase Hasui
Mt. Fuji Seen From Oshino (Oshino no Fuji)
Size: Oban. Approximately 15.625 x 10.5 inches.
Date: 1942. First edition.
Publisher: Watanabe Shozaburo.
Publisher's "G seal" in right margin (used 1942-45).
Signed and sealed by the artist.
Reference: Hotei #465.
Medium: Japanese woodblock print.
Condition: Excellent.

A fine Japanese cloisonne charger featuring a central medallion with a beautiful ho-ho bird, Japanese phoenix, on a goldstone ground. It is in excellent condition and dates late Meiji period, circa 1910. Measures 12 inches diameter.

Japanese scroll painting of a group of scholarly skeletons. At the top of the image, three skeletons drink tea while viewing scrolls. One skeleton displays a scroll on which the artist has signed his name. Other skeletons enjoy music played on a koto while others play go, paint scrolls and make tea. Painted in sumi-e ink and light colors on paper.

Dimensions: Total size: 78 1/2" high x 26" wide (28 1/4" wide including ends). Size of art: 52" high x 20" wide

Japanese scroll painting of a ghostly woman standing in a shoji doorway. Her robes are white, the color of death and her hair falls unkept around her shoulders. Tendrils of flame appear where rays of light shine down at an angle to catch on her sleeve. Painted in mineral colors and ink on silk.
Painted by Obata Chiura (1885-1975), painter and first professor of Japanese painting at University of California, Berkeley. Born in Ibara-cho and raised in Sendai, Japan. Chiura showed extraor...

Japanese scroll painting of 3 skeletons celebrating Obon. One skeleton dances with a fan while two others pay a drum and a shamisen. The Obon festival happens in summer and is a time to honor the dead with music, dance, parades and other events. It is believed that ancestors' spirits return to the world of the living during Obon. Painted in ink and light colors on silk. Signed and with seal of Takeuchi Seiho (1864 - 1942) Seiho traveled and studied in Europe was being strongly influenced ...

Japanese scroll painting of two skeletons hard at work counting money. The calligraphy verse up top appears to be influenced by the Confucian scholar, Kameda Bosai and is sealed Gakubutsu. Below, the skeletons pour over accounting ledgers next to a large scale. This painted portion of the scroll is sealed Nisekisai. Painted in sumi-e ink on paper.

Dimensions: 81 1/2" high x 30 3/4" wide (33" wide including rollers). Size of art: 53" high x 26 3/4" wide

Japanese scroll painting of skeletons, one dancing and one playing a shamisen. Strewn over the ground are skulls and a giant gourd filled with drink. The calligraphy on the top of the scroll states that even the great sage Boddhidaruma and the beautiful Onna no Komachi are Doitsu Byodo (the same as the rest of us) when their flesh is stripped away. Komachi, known for her musical accomplishments is represented by the shamisen-paying skeleton and the dancing skeleton has hands like Daruma's fly...

Scroll painting of a female ghost appearing out of the mist near a waterfall. Painted after the famous image by Maruyama Okyo, the ghost of Oyuki, a lovely woman who died young. Her hair hangs loose over her face and shoulders. She hovers near the roaring water with one hand tucked into her kimono. Oyuki is a subject in Nihok Sandai Kaidan (Japan's "Three Great Ghost Stories"). By the artist Kawata Kenden who is listed in the 1937 Kaitei Kokon Shoga Meika Ichiran hyo (list of great artists fr...

Exquisite repairs in overlapping gold wave designs on colored lacquer drape upon the rim of this 17th century chawan tea bowl. The white clay is covered with millet colored glaze upon which have been scrawled simple designs like the character for person (hito). The bowl is 10.5 x 10 x 6 cm (4-1/4 x 4 x 2-1/2 inches) and is in excellent condition, in a modern kiri-wood collectors’ box.

Kawase Hasui
Senjogahara, Nikko (Senjo Plain Nikko)
Date: 1937. First edition
Publisher: Watanabe Shozaburo. Watanabe F seal (used 1934-41) at right margin.
Size: Oban. 16 x 11 inches.
Signed and sealed by the artist.
Reference: Hotei #410.
Medium: Japanese woodblock print.
Condition: Excellent. Pencil note at bottom back margin "artist - Hasui".

A Very Rare Korean Painting (수양공주-壽陽公主/세화도/歲畵圖) by 유영견(劉永堅)-late 19th C. or early 20th C. Korea, Writt.n inscriptions with artist’s name and seals, and dated 丙午年 正月作 (1846/1906), dedicated to (-see a photo). A Parincess-수양공주-壽陽公主/세화도--歲畵圖-): Painted in ink and colorful colors on paper a depicting a full dressed with hairdo, fairy (heavenly) woman (princess) both hands holding two large peaches. It’s...