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Lacquer including a group of Rinpa-style objects
Lot 2212
A lacquer incense box (kogo) By Kamisaka Sekka (1866-1942) and Kamisaka Yukichi (1886-1938)
20 March 2012, 13:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$1,250 inc. premium
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A lacquer incense box (kogo)
By Kamisaka Sekka (1866-1942) and Kamisaka Yukichi (1886-1938)
The surface designed to simulate textile and decorated in pewter with blossoming plum branches, the interior with sparse nashiji
With a wood storage box inscribed Koetsu ume makie kogo and signed Heian makieshi Yukichi saku and sealed Yu 3 x 2 1/2 x 1in (7.6 x 6.4 x 2.5cm)
The surface designed to simulate textile and decorated in pewter with blossoming plum branches, the interior with sparse nashiji
With a wood storage box inscribed Koetsu ume makie kogo and signed Heian makieshi Yukichi saku and sealed Yu 3 x 2 1/2 x 1in (7.6 x 6.4 x 2.5cm)
Footnotes
A widely successful and prolific artist, Kamisaka Sekka started training at age sixteen in Shijo school painting. He soon became known as an accomplished designer of woodblock prints and decorative arts such as lacquerware and textiles for kimono. This and the following four lots, a group of fine lacquerware for the home are by Sekka and his brother Yukichi, who was trained in lacquer techniques. They often collaborated on projects with Sekka conceiving the designs, and Yukichi realizing them.
Sekka was an influential figure in Kyoto art circles in the years spanning the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. He traveled twice to Europe – first in 1888 and then in 1901 to study design and to visit the Glasgow International Exhibition. With his great interest in the power of design, he was instrumental in generating a twentieth century reinterpretation of Rinpa, namely through his illustrated book, Momoyogusa (World of things, 1909).
In this small sampling of his designs, he pays homage to Hon'ami Koetsu (1558-1637), precursor to the Rinpa School, through the simple but bold design of plum blossoms on the incense case here, and in the calligraphy inlays on the hand warmer in lot 2114. Reference to the Rinpa master Ogata Korin (1658-1716), can be seen in the elegantly placed minimal design of water in the left corner of the low table in lot 2115.