Pair of choshi or sake ewers in low, octagonal forms with elongated, stylized spouts and tapering, loop-style handles. Of cast iron. Signed with a cast, kakihan by the artist. Late Edo period, circa 1825 – 1850.

With a new, paulownia wood storage box.

These choshi contrast a formal geometry, compressed and elongated forms, with the intentionally rough, textured surface of the iron. For centuries Japanese aesthetics turned to these sorts of oppositions: both modern and classical, abstract in texture and regular in form.