SHIBATA ZESHIN 柴田是真 (1807–1891) PANEL WITH BELL CRICKETS, GRASSES, AND FULL MOON 秋の夜(満月芒鈴虫)蒔絵額
Meiji era (1868–1912), 1877
A panel with a highly polished black-lacquer roiro surface worked in relief with the curve of a bank running from top right to bottom left, the moon in silver hiramaki-e merging to silver hirame rising above the bank, curving strands of susuki (plume grass, Miscanthus sinensis) in kuromaki-e (black-on-black maki-e) against the bank and sky, turning to dark brown where they cross the moon, embellished here and there with silver dewdrops, two suzumushi ('bell crickets', Meloimorpha japonicus) on the grasses, in black lacquer takamaki-e, one against the black sky, the other against the moon, all within a removable narrow gold-lacquer border and Western-style frame with curved profile finished in chadō-nuri (a brownish variant of seidō-nuri) perhaps intended to emulate the surface of polished wood
Signed in kuromaki-e at lower right Gyōnen nanajūichi-ō Zeshin sei 行年七十一翁是真製 (Made by Zeshin, aged 71); red lacquer seal: Koma 古満
Overall: 55.9 × 73.4 cm (22 × 28 7/8 in.)
Image: 44.5 × 62 cm (17½ × 24 3/8 in.)
Exhibited
Nezu Bijutsukan (Nezu Museum), Tokyo, 1 November–16 December 2012
Published
Tōkyō Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan (Tokyo National Museum) 2004, cat. no. I-100
Nezu Bijutsukan (Nezu Museum) 2012, cat. no. 50
Takahata and Tsuji 2014, p. 72
Foxwell 2015, p. 50 (fig. 2.2)
With modern fitted wood storage box and cloth-covered slipcase (3)
Footnotes
Saleroom notices
- Please note that this lot has been withdrawn.