BOTTLE, PROBABLY PALACE WORKSHOPS, 1740-1830EMBELLISHMENT, TOMIZO SARATANI, KYOTO, JAPAN, 2008-2009

Saratani Tomizo (b. 1949) began his career as a master lacquerer in the 1960s, apprenticing under lacquer artists Saratani Katsuzo, his father, and Suzuki Masaya. He joined the Kyoto lacquer firm Zohiko in 1971. From 1975 to 1981, Saratani worked in Vienna as a restorer and lecturer in the Austrian National Museum of Applied Arts (MAK). He participated in the Vienna World Craft Exhibition in 1981. In the 1980s and 1990s Saratani lived in London and Chicago, creating his own works and working as an expert restorer. He returned to Japan, founding the lacquer company Kuri in Kaga, Ishikawa Prefecture, in 2009. Saratani is a superb practitioner of traditional Japanese lacquer styles and forms.