Tall, Japanese lacquer byôbu 屏風 (folding screen) by Mitsuo Takana 高名光夫 (1956)

A very colourful and captivating large six-panel byôbu (folding screen) with a refined continuous painting of a luscious flower garden filled with many different types of chrysanthemums (kiku), next to a winding river. This multi-coloured painting is set on a shiny gold-leaf background, and the chrysanthemum flowers are painted by using shell paste (gofun) in low relief. Several clutches with a great variety of chrysanthemum flowers are in full bloom and they each show their unique form and colour. Varying from white, red, yellow and pink. The flowers bloom all around and on different kinds of bamboo fences and trellises. In Japan chrysanthemums are believed to represent happiness, love, longevity and joy. The panels are surrounded by two silk borders, a thin black one, and a wide brown one. The screen is protected by a black and red negoro’nuri...

A small Japanese black and gold lacquer suzuribako (writing box) with cartwheels in water, by the artist Hattori Toshio (1943). Of rectangular form with rounded corners, bearing a lustrous rôiro ground throughout, the exterior sides of the box and exterior of the cover finely decorated in gold and little silver takamaki-e with cartwheels flowing in a dynamically executed body of water with many swirls and gushes as well as scattered dew drops, the interior tray fitted with a rectangular ink stone and silver suiteki (waterdropper). The underside signed ‘Toshi’. With the original wooden tomobako with hakogaki reading Namikuruma makie suzuribako (The writing box set, with a design of wheels in water), as well as a leaflet written in Japanese with the artist’s biography up to 1987. Hattori Toshio (b. 1943), art name Hattori Shunsho, was first selected for the Nitten exhibition in Showa 38 (1963). Since then, he has exhibited more than twenty times at the Nitten and other exhibitions, winning numerous prestigious awards. In 1995, he had an audience with Pope John Paul II and presented the Pope with a lacquer reading table. In 2004, he created the shelves for the guest room of the Kyoto State Guest House of the Government of Japan. He is a member of the Kyoto Crafts Artists Association, the Kyoto Lacquer...

Nice four-panel Japanese screen painted on vegetal paper, depicting a landscape with a red maple, flowers and birds. The size is very refined and easy to place in a design project.

A four-panel Japanese Byobu folding screen depicting a floral scene with birds. Japan, C.1950 Showa Period An attractive example, beautifully h...