Lot 230: An inlaid shirokiri (white paulownia) wood hirobuta (presentation tray) By Asahi Gyokuzan (1843-1923), Meiji Period

By Asahi Gyokuzan (1843-1923), Meiji Period
Decorated on the inside on the far left corner of the tray with an open fan design, enclosing red and white Winter plums in partial bloom, variously inlaid in wood, mother-of-pearl, pewter and coloured horn set against the natural unpolished grain of white paulownia wood; the rim of silvered metal, signed Gyokuzan, with double tomobako signed by the artist Asahi Gyokuzan saku with seal Gyokuzan. 5cm x 34.3cm x 48.7cm (2in x 13½in x 19 1/16in). (3).

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The work is recorded in Nihon Bijutsu Kyokai Hokoku (The Journal of the Japanese Art Society), published in Taisho 5 (1916), as being included in the fifty-fourth Domestic Exhibition of Japan and winning the first prize of a gold medal.

Born in Asakusa, Asahi Gyokuzan together with Ishikawa Komei (1852-1913) were designated Teishitsu gigeiin (Imperial Court Artists) and were two of the most famous and influential carvers in Japan during the Meiji period (1868-1912). Gyokuzan first trained as a Buddhist priest in the late Edo period, but as a young man Gyokuzan took to a more secular life as a carver. He soon became renowned for his unsettlingly realistic compositions of skulls and skeletons. After becoming a professor at the Tokyo Art School, he later moved to Kyoto. Here Gyokuzan re-established his Buddhist ties, while also mastering techniques of inlay.

A hallmark of the finest Japanese art is the depiction of the magical transience of nature, which is elegantly encapsulated in the subject matter presented here. The iconographic choice of a meandering, unsteady branch of white plum on the left, superimposed upon the red plum with its violently upward-twisting gnarled trunk on the right, is directly inspired by the Rimpa repertoire and is reminiscent of the tour-de-force painting on a pair of screens depicting blossoming red and white plum trees by Ogata Korin. It was doubtless conceived with this masterpiece in mind.

The artist's selection of contrasting inlay is deliberate and is set off most effectively by the natural white paulownia-wood ground, on what is a utilitarian object, resulting in a creation which appeals as much to the recipient's intellect as it does to the emotions. At once evocative, lyrical and dynamic, it epitomises the height of craftsmanship and represents the best of Japanese art during a period of great changes in this field.