Japanese Antique Store

An amazing pair of six-panel hinagata byôbu (doll festival folding screens) with a continuous painting on gold leaf showcasing flower carts (hana’guruma) at the edge of a winding river. Both laden with a large bamboo basket...

A charming gosho’ningyô (palace doll) of plump, seated child with a brilliant white skin and a small delicately elegant face, reminiscent of a young noble. The doll is playfully rais...

Outstanding and large porcelain biomorphic abstract sculpture covered in clear glaze and regularly distributed opulent cobalt blue polka dots of varying sizes, titled ‘Twisting Back, Multiplying’, hand-built by the highly praised Japanese ceramic artist Harumi Nakashima (1950). Signed at the bottom in a dot '1104 Haru'. Made in 2011. Documented on the website of the artist himself. Born in 1950 in Ena, Gifu Prefecture, Harumi Nakashima is known for his biomorphic porcelain sculptures decorated with opulent blue dots. He excels in clay creations far removed from both tradition and functionality. Taking great care to achieve a flawless surface and form, each piece is created over the course of six months. Nakashima's early reputation was cemented as one of the leading teachers at the Tajimi Pottery Design and Technical Center, having trained and influenced many of the promising young ceramicists of Japan since 1976. Nakashima has received leading prizes and tributes. With works collected by 20 public institutions the world over, including the Museum of Arts and Design in New York and the Faenza Ceramics Museum in Italy, he is one of Japan's most celebrated porcelain artist. Influenced by the blue sometsuke (under-glaze) motifs of traditional Japanese porcelain, Nakashima's motifs also use cobalt blue over-glaze. Yet unlike traditional methods, Nakashima's blue dots are painted over the body of a work after the main firing, and then fired into the white glaze of the porcelain with a second firing using the technique of "in-glazing", thereby leading to the sinking of the dots upon the white overglaze. Perhaps more surprising is the fact that his organic, sprawling and fluid porcelain bodies are entirely hand-built. As porcelain is extremely difficult to manipulate by free-hand, Nakashima intentionally uses this method to create not only tension, but an epic "battle with clay". He is currently based in the port city of Nagoya, and some of his more recent exhibitions are; 2021 Art Market San Francisco, Duane Reed Gallery...

An elaborate, large six-panel byôbu (folding screen) featuring a detailed genre painting on gold leaf, capturing the vibrancy of festive scenes from the Edo period. Central to the p...

Magnificent and large Japanese organically-shaped oval stoneware vase decorated with a granular deep blue colour (seirôsai), titled: ‘Ginga yô’ (far a...

A rare, high quality lacquered portable jû'bako (tiered food container/stacked picnic box) fitted with a removable vertical safety bar - housing a nice secret – decorated with a refi...

A heavy traditional bronze temple bell (bonshô), boasting a bright green patina and a resonant sound. The top handle (ryûzu), is beautifully sculpted into the form of twin dragon he...

A captivating lacquer suzuri’bako (writing box) of rounded rectangular form depicting a pair of shishi (temple lions) and the lucky god Hotei 布袋 on a rôiro...

An old and exceptional completely lacquered akoda-nari suji’bachi kabuto (helmet with raised ridges) with a bronze maedate (decorative front piece) shaped like a spade, and mounted b...

Exquisite white glazed porcelain figure (okimono) of a sitting child holding a spray of chrysanthemum flowers with cobalt blue glazed leaves in its hand, by Sakaida Kakiemon XII (1878–1963). The milk white glaze is called nigoshide a type of technique which was not continued at the end of the Edo period, and is the famous rediscovery done by Sakaida Kakiemon XII in 1953. The bottom signed ‘Kakiemon’. Sakaida Kakiemon XII assumed the family title on the death of his father, Sakaida Kakiemon XI, in 1917. Earlier he had graduated from the Arita Apprentice School and then studied ceramics with his father. Initially he worked in the traditional Kakiemon style, echoing the work of his forbears in the 17th and 18th centuries. He began working with his own son in 1924, after the future Kakiemon XIII graduated from the Arita Industrial School. Together in 1953 they succeeded in recreating the classical Kakiemon technique for producing a nigoshide milky-white porcelain body. This technique was designated a national cultural treasure meriting preservation and protection by the Cultural Protection Committee in 1955. That same year he exhibited at the 2nd Japan Traditional Crafts Exhibition (Nihon Dento Kogei-ten) for the first time, winning a prize for his entry. In 1958, he exhibited at the World Exposition...

Very large ovoid shaped porcelain vase with a beautiful blue and white mountainscape design accentuated by a low relief details. The top of the vase ends in an elegant small neck. Y...

Superb rectangular ‘Rinpa School’-style black lacquer suzuri’bako (writing box) with a slightly arched well-fitted overhanging cover with rounded corners. The lid with a design of a gosho’guruma (ox-drawn carriage for Heian-era nobles) featuring golden hiramaki-e (low-relief lacquer design) and takamaki-e (high-relief lacquer design), inlays of lead and shiny mother-of-pearl (raden). The design continues along the sides. The reverse of the lid decorated with two large curving pine trees (matsu) executed in the same way, but also with intricate dots of tiny pieces of inlaid blue mother-of-pearl along the golden trunk. The interior shaped to hold various scholar’s accessories, including a partially gold lacquered inkstone (suzuri) and a bronze waterdropper (suiteki) shaped like a mythical minogame. The interior inscribed ‘Hokkyô Kôrin zô’ (Made by Hokkyô Kôrin). Referring to the design being in style of the master Ogata Kôrin, but the actual lacquer artist is unknown. It is a homage to Kôrin by an artist that followed the school of Rinpa. Including black lacquer wooden tomobako (tomobako). The Rinpa School was a key part of the Edo period revival of indigenous Japanese artistic interests described by the term yamato-e. Paintings, textiles, ceramics, and lacquerwares were decorated by Rinpa artists with vibrant colours applied in a highly decorative and patterned manner. Favoured themes, which often contained evocative references to nature and the seasons, were drawn from Japanese literature, notably The Tale of Genji, The Tales of Ise...