EARLY MEIJI PERIOD (CIRCA 1875-85)

Details

AN UNUSUAL PAIR OF INLAID BRONZE VASES
Early Meiji Period (Circa 1875-85)
Each loosely based on the Chinese hu form with four bowed sides, the high splayed foot and swelling body narrowing to a bulbous neck finishing in an out- turned rim, decorated in inlay and overlay of gold, silver, copper, shibuichi and shakudo with a variety of musical motifs: masks for gagaku on either side of the neck, butterfly dancers, gakudaiko drums, a torikabuto [bugaku dancer's cap] cap, a sho [pan-pipes] and two pairs of courtly dancers; the other decoration including peony scrolls, mitsudomoe [three-comma] and other mon, and lappets around the foot and neck
9 7/8in. (25.2cm.) high (2)

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Lot Essay

The two pairs of dancers are taken from pictorial versions of the 11th-century Genji monogatari [The Tale of Genji] that became popular during the 16th. The two dancers with swords are associated with Chapter 7, Momiji no ga (Autumn celebration), while the two butterfly dancers are associated with Chapter 24, Kocho [Butterflies].1

1 See Yamane Yuzo ed., Nihon byobu-e shusei [A compendium of Japanese screen-painting], vol. 5, Yamato-ekei jinbutsu [Figural painting in the Yamato-e tradtion], nos. 93 and 94; Shikibu Murasaki, The Tale of Genji (E. G. Seidensticker tr.; London, 1976), p. 422; Miyeko Murase, Iconography of the Tale of Genji: Genji Monogatari Ekotoba (New York and Tokyo, 1983).

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