.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Dated works by Kenzan are extremely rare. This incense burner is dated 1715, making it a precious document of the early years of the artist's so-called Chojiyamachi period (1712-31). In 1712, Kenzan closed his kiln in the secluded outskirts of Kyoto--his earlier client base may have dried up--and moved to the thriving, downtown commercial area west of Teramachi on Nijo Street, the major business thoroughfare. Here, in the center of the city, he was supported by newly wealthy townsmen. In 1711, his brother, Korin, the painter, moved to a location a few blocks away. The two brothers--both celebrity artists--collaborated on ceramics. In this convenient downtown area, known as Nijo-Chojiyamachi, Kenzan maintained a highly successful ceramics business using rented kiln spaces. Contemporary sources list Kenzan wares among the prominent Kyoto products of the second decade of the eighteenth century.
Considering that the corpus of ceramics with Kenzan signature stands at about 3,000, it is notable that Richard L. Wilson, the authority on Kenzan ceramics, judged the piece offered here to be authentic Kenzan ware made in the year 1715. It is very close to an incense container in Montreal with the same date.
This incense burner, formerly in a daimyo collection, was purchased in 1903 in Japan by Jane Stanford (1828-1905), widow of Leland Stanford (1824-1893), with whom she co-founded Stanford University. She was on an extended trip to Australia, Asia and the Middle East. It was "rediscovered" by the scholar Yashiro Yukio (1890-1975) when he was at Stanford University giving lectures. Yashiro became the founding director in 1960 of the museum Yamato Bunkakan in Nara. That same year the incense burner was published in his museum journal, Yamato bunka, by Mitsuoka Tadanari, who called attention to a nearly identical example, undated, now in the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo. For the Idemitsu example, see Kenzan no geijutsu to Korin Art of Kenzan and his Brother Korin (Tokyo: NHK Promotion, 2007), pl. 150. Both have the jewel-grasping lion on the knob of the lid, surrounded by a balustrade. They are decorated in the style of Chinese Cizhou ware with a geometric band, clouds, and chrysanthemum arabesque motif painted in iron-oxide over a white slip, and with delicate sgraffito scoring, all covered with a clear glaze. Both pieces have a poem inscribed in Chinese on the back of the lowest platform, eulogizing the heroic ferocity of the lion. The inscription on the work shown here is by the mid-Tang poet Gao Shi (700-765), from his Praise for the Lion in Officer Fan's Chamber (Fan shao fu ting shizi zan). The poet had seen Fan's portrait, and praises him by comparing him to a powerful lion.
Of the hundred beasts, none approaches the ferocity of the lion.
His indigo eyes are like suspended stars, his red tail like rising flames
His bronze claws and steel armor, his saw-toothed fangs and chisel teeth
Look back at rhinos and elephants fleeing by the droves into the hills. Behold the thousand packs of bears laying low in the fields
And by this know his majesty!
The inscription on the Idemitsu work, which Mitsuoka judged to be slightly later in date than this example, also betrays Kenzan's appreciation of the lion:
Its anger combines that of grizzlies and bears,
Its awesomeness makes one shiver with fright
Its valor puts tigers and leopards to flight
Its spirit is heroic as can be.
Considering that the corpus of ceramics with Kenzan signature stands at about 3,000, it is notable that Richard L. Wilson, the authority on Kenzan ceramics, judged the piece offered here to be authentic Kenzan ware made in the year 1715. It is very close to an incense container in Montreal with the same date.
This incense burner, formerly in a daimyo collection, was purchased in 1903 in Japan by Jane Stanford (1828-1905), widow of Leland Stanford (1824-1893), with whom she co-founded Stanford University. She was on an extended trip to Australia, Asia and the Middle East. It was "rediscovered" by the scholar Yashiro Yukio (1890-1975) when he was at Stanford University giving lectures. Yashiro became the founding director in 1960 of the museum Yamato Bunkakan in Nara. That same year the incense burner was published in his museum journal, Yamato bunka, by Mitsuoka Tadanari, who called attention to a nearly identical example, undated, now in the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo. For the Idemitsu example, see Kenzan no geijutsu to Korin Art of Kenzan and his Brother Korin (Tokyo: NHK Promotion, 2007), pl. 150. Both have the jewel-grasping lion on the knob of the lid, surrounded by a balustrade. They are decorated in the style of Chinese Cizhou ware with a geometric band, clouds, and chrysanthemum arabesque motif painted in iron-oxide over a white slip, and with delicate sgraffito scoring, all covered with a clear glaze. Both pieces have a poem inscribed in Chinese on the back of the lowest platform, eulogizing the heroic ferocity of the lion. The inscription on the work shown here is by the mid-Tang poet Gao Shi (700-765), from his Praise for the Lion in Officer Fan's Chamber (Fan shao fu ting shizi zan). The poet had seen Fan's portrait, and praises him by comparing him to a powerful lion.
Of the hundred beasts, none approaches the ferocity of the lion.
His indigo eyes are like suspended stars, his red tail like rising flames
His bronze claws and steel armor, his saw-toothed fangs and chisel teeth
Look back at rhinos and elephants fleeing by the droves into the hills. Behold the thousand packs of bears laying low in the fields
And by this know his majesty!
The inscription on the Idemitsu work, which Mitsuoka judged to be slightly later in date than this example, also betrays Kenzan's appreciation of the lion:
Its anger combines that of grizzlies and bears,
Its awesomeness makes one shiver with fright
Its valor puts tigers and leopards to flight
Its spirit is heroic as can be.