SEALED KAKO (SUZUKI CHOKICHI), MEIJI PERIOD (LATE 19TH CENTURY)

Suzuki Chokichi (1848-1919) who used the art name Kako, was perhaps one of the most highly regarded of Japanese Meiji era bronze artists whose work ranges from elegant small decorative pieces such as these vases, to monumental civic splendours in Japan, and huge decorative extravaganzas like the incense burners in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (bought at the Paris exposition of 1878, Museum number 188:1 to 9-1883) and the equally impressive incense burner supported by three demons in the Khalili collection1. Suzuki became one of the directors of the government export company, the Kiryu Kosho Kaisha, and was appointed a Tesihitsu Gigei-In [Imperial Arist] in 1896. He was a major exhibitor at the expositions in Vienna (1873), Philadelphia (1876), and Paris (1978).

1. Oliver Impey and Malcolm Fairley (eds.), The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Japanese Art, Metalwork Part II, (London, 1995), cat. no.1