85 - AN IMPRESSIVE AND RARE BLACK- AND GOLD-LACQUERED ‘ELEPHANT’ KAWARI KABUTO (ECCENTRICALLY SHAPED HELMET)

AN IMPRESSIVE AND RARE BLACK- AND GOLD-LACQUERED ‘ELEPHANT’ KAWARI KABUTO (ECCENTRICALLY SHAPED HELMET) Japan, 18th century, Edo period (1615-1868) The iron hachi of etchu-zunari form, covered in lustrous black lacquer and surmounted by a dramatic lacquered superstructure conceived as an elephant with its trunk raised. The tall, gently curving trunk rises prominently from the crown, lacquered in gold and terminating in a black tip, and is flanked by large downward-curving ears, their inner edges lined in gold. The broad mabizashi is ingeniously integrated into the zoomorphic design, worked in raised lacquer with a pair of stylized eyes beneath pronounced brow folds, so that the hachi, visor, trunk, and ears together form the head of the elephant. The lower edge is fitted with a five-lame black-lacquered shikoro without fukigaeshi, the interior with fabric lining. WIDTH 38.5 cm, HEIGHT 50 cm WEIGHT 2.1 kg (excl. stand), 2.7 kg (incl. stand) Condition: Very good condition with minor wear. Light surface scratches, minor rubbing and small losses to the lacquer, particularly to the gilt areas, and a few small age cracks to the lacquer of the shikoro. With a wood stand. Kawari kabuto, or ‘extraordinary helmets’, first flourished during the warfare of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, when conspicuous and highly individualized forms both distinguished their wearers on the battlefield and provided a powerful means of personal display. By the comparatively peaceful 18th century, these boldly sculptural helmets increasingly became expressions of prestige and ceremonial rank among the samurai elite. The present example is particularly striking because the elephant is not simply applied to the helmet as a crest. Instead, the entire architecture of the kabuto is absorbed into the animal, with the crown supporting the raised trunk and ears and the mabizashi transformed into its brow and eyes. This integration of the helmet's functional elements into a fully zoomorphic conception represents one of the most inventive characteristics of kawari kabuto design. The elephant had long been familiar in Japan through Buddhist imagery, most notably as the sacred mount of Fugen Bosatsu, who is traditionally represented riding a white elephant. Yet the animal acquired a remarkable new immediacy during the first half of the 18th century. In 1728, at the request of the eighth shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune, a male and female elephant from Vietnam arrived at Nagasaki. The female died shortly thereafter, but the surviving male was led overland from Nagasaki to Edo in 1729, passing through Kyoto, where it was presented before Emperor Nakamikado, before eventually being shown to Yoshimune in Edo. Although elephants had previously reached Japan, the 1729 journey provided an unprecedented opportunity for large numbers of people to see a living elephant. The animal caused considerable excitement along its route and inspired publications and visual representations. Ito Jakuchu (1716-1800), then a young boy living in Kyoto, is thought to have seen the elephant as it passed through the city, and elephants subsequently became a recurring subject in his work. It is conceivable that the anonymous armorer responsible for the present helmet was likewise responding to the heightened fascination with elephants generated by this remarkable event. Museum comparison: Compare a related zo hana nari kabuto (‘elephant-trunk-form helmet’), dated to the Edo period, exhibited at the Oyama City Museum, Tochigi, in 2011, similarly modeled with a prominent elephant trunk and large lateral ears. Auction comparison: Compare a related fully zoomorphic kawari kabuto modeled as a shachihoko, dated to the 18th-19th century, at Bonhams, Fine Japanese Art, 17 May 2018, London, lot 152 (sold for GBP 43,750 or approx. EUR 69,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing). Compare a related black-lacquered kawari kabuto, Momoyama to early Edo period, with a wave-form crest, at Christie's New York, An Inquiring Mind: American Collecting of Japanese and Korean Art, 15 April 2016, lot 63 (sold for USD 81,250 or approx. EUR 100,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing).