Lot Essay
Takano Shozan was trained as a lacquer artist in his home town of Kumamoto. Later he studied at the Kyoto Municipal School of Arts and Crafts and the Tokyo School of Fine Arts as an undergraduate and graduate student of the lacquer department under Shirayama Shosai (1853-1923). He first exhibited in the Teiten exhibition in 1927 and continued to exhibit almost annually. He was designated an Important Intangible Cultural Property (Living National Treasure) in 1955.