Live Auction 5546Asobi: Ingenious Creativity, Japanese Works of Art from Antiquity to Contemporary
Two Monumental Bronze Shinto Deities
Lot 98 THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN 

Two Monumental Bronze Shinto Deities

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

Closed15 October 2014

Price Realised

GBP 146,500

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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)

Specialist note

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.