Worcester Art Museum's Exhibition on Japanese Metalwork

choi

Lee Lawrence, Creativity Forged Anew in Japan; Celebrating the metalworking mastery in the Edo period and the creative resilience followed in the Meiji Restoration. Wall Street Journal, Jan 8, 2017
https://www.wsj.com/articles/las ... ged-anew-1515240001

Note:
(a) The report is not locked behind paywall.
(b) This is an exhibition review on Last Defense; The genius of Japanese Meiji metalwork. Worcester Art Museum, Sept 13, 2017 - Sept 2, 2018.
http://www.worcesterart.org/exhi ... japanese-metalwork/
("In celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Meiji Restoration (1868-1912)")

(c)
(i) WSJ text: "As bold as it is elegant, a helmet made in 1618 by the Nagasone school emulates the spiraling shape of a conch shell with spur-like projections."

Reference the Museum URL whose caption states, "Top image: NAGASONE Tōjirō Mitsumasa 長曽祢 藤次郎 光正, Helmet in the form of a Sea Conch Shell, 1618, iron with traces of lacquer, textiles, The John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection [of Worcester Art Museum], 2014.89.1."
(ii) WSJ text: "The decorations on a three-tiered box [I can not find it in the Web] by TAKASE Kōzan 高瀬 好山 [1869-1934], for example, are recycled sword guards, while his articulated figurine of a lobster (made around 1900) carries forward a prized specialty of Myochin family  -- witness the impressively detailed dragon figurine next to it."

Reference the Museum URL whose caption states,  "Kōzan, Articulated 'Jizai' Figurine of a Lobster, about 1900, iron, The John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection, 2014.609"
(A) Japanese spiny lobster  伊勢蝦/伊勢海老 (Panulirus japonicus; "It grows up to 30 centimetres (12 in) long and lives in the Pacific Ocean around Japan, China, and Korea")  en.wikipedia.org  (American lobster, Homarus americanus, shares the same order but not family; an order is higher  -- closer to the top -- than a family.)
(B) "房総半島以南から台湾までの西太平洋沿岸と九州、朝鮮半島南部の沿岸域に分布する。"  ja.wikipedia.org.
(C) Regarding 伊勢蝦/伊勢海老."
* 由来・語源 伊勢湾でたくさんとれたため。"  (my translation: etymology: because many were caught in Ise Bay)
* "和語の「えび」は、元々は葡萄、あるいはその色のことだった。葡萄の色に似ていることから蝦・海老のことを「えび」と呼ぶようになった。現在でも「葡萄色」と書いて「えびいろ」とも読む。漢字表記の「海老」や「蛯」の字は曲がった腰と長い髭を老人に見立てたものである。"  ja.wikipedia.org for

my translation: The native Japanese term "ebi" originally meant "grape" or its color.  Due to similarity in color, 蝦・海老 also came to be called "ebi."  To this day, the written 葡萄色 is read "ebi-iro." [The iro is Japanese pronunciation for 色.]  The "ebi" is represented by kanji 海老or 蛯, due to its bent body and long antennae looking like an old man.
(D) Ise Bay 伊勢湾 is the inlet from City of Nagoya 名古屋市 (in the north) to Ise, Mie  三重県 伊勢市.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ise,_Mie
(map)

choi

(d) jizai okimono 自在置物
(i) Japanese-English dictionary:
* jizai 自在 【じざい】 (n): "freely; at will  <彼はフランス語が自在にこなせる。 He has a good command of French>"  (自在 as kanji has the same meaning as in Chinese.)
* okimono 置物 【おきもの】 (n): "ornament"
(ii) Lizzie71, Western Influence on Okimonos. Okimono Project, May 16, 2015
https://okimonoproject.wordpress ... luence-on-okimonos/
("In Japanese, ‘okimono’ means any free-standing object, including art objects, dolls, and souvenirs. * * * Famous examples of okimono from the pre-Meiji Period are the Jizai Okimono. Jizai Okimono are realistically shaped figures of animals made from metal. Their bodies and limbs are articulated, and can be moved like real animals")

There is no need to read the rest of this Web page.


(e) WSJ text: "An example of this tour de force is a pair of silver vases, made by HIRAYAMA Kantei [平山 寛亭（不明-不明）] between 1900 and 1916, that depicts bantam chickens, every feather, talon and ridge of their combs rendered in detail with different alloys and gold."
(i)
(A) Hirayama Kantei, Pair of Silver Vases with Bantam Cockerels. Kagedō 景堂, undated
https://kagedo.com/wordpress/g/h ... s-bantam-cockerels/
("This piece is no longer available [read: sold]. * * * With the original, period storage box, inscribed on the exterior of the lid: Niwatori Shiyū̃ Chōkoku, Gin Kabin Ittsui, Shitan Dai Tsuki [should be 紫檀[ ]付  銀花瓶壹對 雞雌雄雕刻, but the Washington state-based antique dealer switched the first and the last] or A Pair of Silver Vases, (With) a Sculpted Male and Female Pair of Bantam Chickens, With Rosewood Stands")
(B) The image to the left of the text is actually a gallery of photo, the last of which is the original container.
http://kagedo.com/wordpress/wp-c ... -silver-vases-2.jpg
(ii) I fail to unveil the new owner, as well as the kanji for HIRAYAMA Kantei.
(f) photo captions in WSJ (whose online version does not show photo of the pair of silver vases):
(i) "Attributed to Muneaki, Myochin, Articulated 'Jizai' figurine of a Dragon (tatsu), 1850-1900."
(A) File:Jizai Okimono Dragon.JPG
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jizai_Okimono_Dragon.JPG
("日本語: 龍の鉄製自在置物。1713年（正徳3年）、明珍 宗察 作。東京国立博物館所蔵。
English: A Jizai Okimono (articulated figure) of dragon made of iron, by Myōchin Muneaki in 1713. Displayed in Tokyo National Museum")
(B) 「自在龍置物」を動かしてみた（東京国立博物館） Playing with 'Articulated Dragon' (Tokyo National Museum)). YouTube.com, published by TokyoNationalMuseum on July 2, 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAd-I9nZ15I
(C) describing this very dragon:
"The earliest known artefact [of jizai okimono] is a dragon by Myochin Muneaki, dated 1713, that now resides in the collection of the Tokyo National Museum." Christie's in New York for the Apr 25, 2017 auction titled "An Inquiring Mind; American collecting of Japanese & Korean art."
(ii) "Unno Shōmin 海野 勝珉 [1844-1915], Dove Okimono (c 1900)"

His name (both the surname and given name) is picked up (by himself, not his parents) from three persons: the surname from his first teacher, the first kanji of his given name from another teacher, and the second kanji of the given name from a metal worker who had died (横谷宗珉 1670-1733):   "初代・海野美盛に金属彫刻を学ぶ。 * * * 「勝珉」の名は、師・萩谷勝平の「勝」と江戸時代の名彫金家・横谷宗珉の「珉」を合わせ後に名乗ったものと考えられる。
(iii) "Myōchin Ki (no) Munechika 明珍 紀 宗[ ], Acorn-shaped Kabuto (1855)"
(A) I fail to find the second kanji of his given name. This helmet is in the collection of Stibbert Museum in Florence, Italy.
(B) Americans may call the kabuto 兜 (helmet) "acorn-shaped," but Japanese call it 椎実形兜 (or 椎形兜 for short). (Japanese pronunciation for 椎形 and 椎実形 are "shiikata" and :shii-no-mi-kata," respectively.) 椎の実 means beechnut, where 椎 is beech tree. See

武具・刀剣コレクション Collections. 東京富士美術館 Tokyo Fuji Art Museum (1983- ; private), undated
http://www.fujibi.or.jp/our-coll ... ?collection_id=b000
, where one collection (as a thumbnail) has the caption: "《鉄錆地六十二間椎形筋兜　火炎に梵字前立》 Sixty-two Plate Riveted Acorn-Shaped Suji Kabuto Helmet." This helmet is very similar to the one in a photo of the WSJ review (which also has a pair of flapson the rim).

This 富士美 Fujibi Web page has another helmet whose caption is "鉄錆地南蛮鉢形兜 輪貫前立 Kabuto Helmet with Visor in the Namban [southern barbarian, which since the 15th century referring to Southeast Asians, Spaniards and Portuguese] Style."  鉢形 is short for 擂鉢形, with 擂鉢 defined as "(earthenware) mortar (for grinding)."  The English translation for 鉢形兜 is "cone-shaped kabuto." Note the pointed top of the helmet compared to an acorned-shaped one.