MIURA KENYA: A SUPERB CERAMIC BOX (TOBAKO) AND... Lot n° 26

MIURA KENYA: A SUPERB CERAMIC BOX (TOBAKO) AND LACQUERED WOOD COVER By Miura Kenya (1821-1889), signed Rokusei Kenzan Japan, 19th century, Edo period (1615-1868) The rectangular ceramic box with a reddish-brown glaze along the sides and a milky-white glaze to the interior and base, painted with three seals on the interior. The lacquered wood lid worked in gold and kawari-nuri takamaki-e and further embellished with ceramic inlays, depicting scholar’s objects including a seal stamp, two paintbrushes, the tip of one inlaid in mother-of-pearl, and a suzuri (ink stone). The interior of the cover signed ROKUSEI KENZAN. SIZE 14.5 x 11.7 x 3.9 cm Condition: Very good condition with only very minor wear. Miura Kenya (1825-1889), known as Kenya I, led a versatile life: first as a maker of clay dolls, then travelling to Nagasaki in 1854 to work on the first Japanese steamboat, in 1869 producing the first Japanese bricks, and from 1875 producing pottery at the Chomeiji in Tokyo. In an inscription on one of his inro he calls himself the last pupil of Ritsuo, and he was also strongly influenced by the style of Kenzan. See Earle, Joe [ed.] (1995) The Index of Inro Artists, p. 125.