SEALED DAI NIHON SUZUKI MASAYOSHI TSUKURU, MEIJI PERIOD (LATE 19TH CENTURY)

Details

Two Monumental Bronze Shinto Deities
Sealed Dai Nihon Suzuki Masayoshi tsukuru, Meiji period (late 19th century)
One of the pair represents the Dragon King of the Sea, his helmet surmounted by a dragon, with armoured shoulder guards and gauntlets with maple leaves, his tunic with various marine emblems and sea creatures including the mythical winged shachi, roundels of stylised dragons, boots of straw, the other a rather female deity who has in her headdress a disc representing the sun, and with more elegant boots, both figures are adorned with necklaces of both spherical beads and the comma-shaped magatama, the figures carry staves with perches for hawks, possibly a later edition
Each 208cm. high (including perches)

Sale Room Notice

Please note that this lot should be marked with a red square in the printed catalogue and as such the lot will be removed to an off-site warehouse and can be collected as of Friday 17th October. Free storage will apply until 5pm on 29th October 2014.

Lot Essay

The Dragon King of the Sea is depicted also in a major bronze group in the Khalili Collection in which he is shown giving the jewel which controls the tides to the deity Susano-O, who takes the jewel as a gift to his elder sister Sun Goddess Amaterasu no Okami (The Khalili Collection, Meiji no Takara – Treasures of Imperial Japan, Metalwork Part II, No. 98). The implication might be that the female figure represents the Sun Goddess in this context, but the confusing iconography, especially the hunting birds, does not allow any clear identification. The two figures are a charming example of Meiji period export art with free use of mythological subjects to create highly decorative yet dignified sculpture.

Suzuki Masayoshi (Masakichi b.1864) studied under Koyosai Hotoku and Nishimura Iyemon. He setup a studio in 1874 and is well known for his model dragons. He was the teacher of Okazaki Sessei who made the monumental bronze shishi which stood at the old Nihonbashi bridge in Tokyo and the Saigo Takamori in Ueno Park.

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