Edo period (18th-19th century), signed Myochin Munekuni

Details

An iron articulated sculpture of a hermit crab
Edo period (18th-19th century), signed Myochin Munekuni
The russet-iron hermit crab finely constructed of numerous hammered plates jointed inside the body; the antennae, limbs and claws move, the details finely carved and chiseled, signature on body
4 in. (10.2 cm.) long

Literature

Kuo Hong-Sheng and Chang Yuan-Feng, chief eds. et al., Meiji no bi / Splendid Beauty: Illustrious Crafts of the Meiji Period (Taipei: National Taiwan Normal University Research Center for Conservation of Cultural Relics, 2013), pp. 316-317.

Exhibited

Preparatory Office of the National Headquarters of Taiwan Traditional Arts, “Japan Arts of Meiji Period; Asia-Pacific Traditional Arts Festival Special Exhibition.” 2011.7.8-2012.1.8. cat. p. 115.
“Meiji Kogei: Amazing Japanese Art,” shown at the following venues: Tokyo University of the Arts Museum, 2016.9.7-10.30. Hosomi Museum, Kyoto, 2016.11.12-12.25. Kawagoe City Art Museum, 2017.4.22-6.11. cat. no. 16

Brought to you by

Priscilla Kong

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Lot Essay

Munekuni came from a family of metalworkers originally in the Saotome school. His name is mentioned in Masuda Myochin ke rekidai keifu (Genealogy of the Masuda Myochin school) as an artist living in Iwaki, Aizu province (present-day Fukushima Prefecture). He apprenticed to Myochin Munemasa, the twenty-sixth generation of the Myochin school in Edo. This crab appears to be the only known articulated sculpture signed by Munekuni.

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