This auction has ended. View lot details
You may also be interested in



A large bronze baluster inlaid vase By Katori Hotsuma (1874-1954), dated 1915
Sold for £4,800 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our Japanese Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistA large bronze baluster inlaid vase
Decorated around the middle with a wide continuous gold band carved with hentaigana script chitose furu / senshū banzei / kasanare ri, interweaved among auspicious symbols of longevity including cranes, minogame and bamboo, the base carved in high relief with the characters Hotsuma Taisho yo-nen aki ku-gatsu saku (made in September of Autumn 1915, by Hotsuma) with wood storage box. 34cm (13 3/8in) high. (2).
Footnotes
源平盛衰記今様入金象嵌銅花瓶 香取秀真 大正4年(1915年)
The hentaigana script on the vase is an integral component of the whole text: Hōrai-san niwa chitose furu banzei senshū kasanare ri matsu no eda niwa tsuru sukuu iwao no ue niwa kame asobu, an auspicious song chanted by the shirabyoshi, Gio and Gijo, in front of Taira no Kiyomori.
Hotsuma has very skillfully and deliberately omitted most of the words of the song and replaced the missing text instead with the images on the vase; this sophisticated interplay between text and images would not have been lost on the literary elite or its cultivated recipient.
See also the footnote to lot 508.
























