MEIJI PERIOD (EARLY 20TH CENTURY), SIGNED KYUSAI

This piece is accompanied by its tomobako [original box]. The top of the cover of which is inscribed mame ojime [bean ojime] and the underside with the artist's signature Kyusai to [carved by Kyusai] and red seal. The artist was born in Osaka in 1879 and was a pupil of his father, Hansen. An example of a signature of this kind (he changed his name several times) and a carving of three parched nuts, similar in style to the present example, can be seen in Lazarnick, George, Netsuke and Inro Artists and How to Read Their Signatures, (Honolulu, 1982), p. 695, where Kyusai is described as "Undoubtedly one of the great masters of recent years."