23 - KITAGAWA HOKUSEN I: A FINE BRONZE ‘SNAIL’ VASE WITH SILVER-INLAID TRAIL

KITAGAWA HOKUSEN I: A FINE BRONZE ‘SNAIL’ VASE WITH SILVER-INLAID TRAIL By Kitagawa Hokusen I (Motoyoshi, 1846-1922), signed Nanajuyon-o Hokusen with kakihan Japan, c. 1920, Taisho period (1912-1926) Of elegant sorori form, the bulbous body rising to a long slender neck and gently everted rim, applied with a naturalistically modeled snail creeping upward, its shell and soft body meticulously detailed. Behind the snail extends a sinuous trail delicately inlaid in silver, ingeniously suggesting the glistening slime left in its wake. The neck is incised in reisho (clerical script) with an extract from a poem by the celebrated Song-dynasty poet Su Shi (1037-1101). Signed Nanajuyon-o HOKUSEN [Hokusen at the age of seventy-four] with an elaborate kakihan. Inscription: To the neck, 腥涎不滿殼，聊足以自濡 Xing xian bu man ke, liao zuyi zi ru [Its slime does not fill its shell; it is barely enough to keep itself moist]. HEIGHT 23 cm WEIGHT 600 g Provenance: Oriental Treasure Box, San Diego, California. Founded in 1984 by Kazuo Kuwabara, Oriental Treasure Box specialized for nearly four decades in fine Japanese art and crafts. Kuwabara sourced works during frequent travels to Japan and exhibited extensively at Asian art and antiques fairs in the United States and Japan. Condition: Excellent condition with minor wear. With a wood storage box. The inscription is taken from Su Shi’s poem Snail, from his series Eight Subjects from Yong Xiucai’s Paintings of Plants and Insects. The complete verse continues with the snail climbing ever higher, unaware that it should turn back, until its moisture is exhausted and it dries upon the wall. Hokusen ingeniously transforms the poem into three-dimensional imagery: the snail itself ascends the vase while its silver-inlaid trail gives tangible form to the very slime described in the inscription. The complete poem lends the seemingly playful subject a cautionary undertone, presenting the relentlessly climbing snail as an image of ambition pursued without knowing when to retreat. Kitagawa Hokusen I (1846-1922) was a distinguished metalworker of the Mito school and one of the artists who successfully carried its highly refined traditions of sword-fitting manufacture into the decorative arts of the Meiji and Taisho periods. Born in Mito, he studied metalwork under Sekijoken Motozane and later taught at the Tokyo Fine Arts School. His works are distinguished by precise modeling, sophisticated mixed-metal techniques, and an acute observation of the natural world. Hokusen achieved significant recognition during his lifetime. In 1890 he produced works for the Imperial Household, including a silver lion censer and a vase decorated with crabs in a stream, and in 1893 received a gold medal at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago for a pair of silver bantam cockerels and a gilt-bronze figure of a boy riding a tortoise. Works by the artist are preserved in Japanese museum collections, and the Ibaraki Prefectural Museum of Ceramic Art has included him among the significant metalworkers of the region. Auction comparison: Compare a closely related bronze-inlaid vase with a snail by the same artist, Kitagawa Motoyoshi (Hokusen), dated late 19th-early 20th century, 21.3 cm high, at Bonhams, Fine Japanese Works of Art, 17 September 2013, New York, lot 3269 (sold for USD 7,500 or approx. EUR 9,400 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing).