Tsuri-goro or hanging incense burner in the form of a flying bat with out-stretched wings. Of cast and cold-chiseled bronze, with a bronze chain. Signed on the reverse with a chiseled signature by the artist: Yamashiro. Edo period, early 19th century.

With the tomobako or original box, inscribed on the exterior of the lid: Komori Tsuri O-goro or Bat (Form) Hanging Incense Burner; and on the reverse of the lid signed: Okamashi Yamashiro or Kettle Caster Yamashiro, and sealed: Yamashiro.

The exterior of the box bears a paper label which reads: Karakane Komori Tsuri-goro or Bronze Bat (Form) Hanging Incense Burner.

Inside the box is a paper auction document inscribed: 83 Yen, Heizando, with a round seal: Urikire or Sold; and dated: Showa Yon Nen Ju-gatsu, Ju-yon-ka, Makino-ke Kanju Shogun Shozohin Nyusatsu Fudamoto Ito Heizando or Showa (era) 4th Year (1929), October 14th, Sale of General Kanju of the Makino Family’s Collection (by) Ito Heizando (Auction House). Ito Heizando was located in Ryogoku, Tokyo.

General Kanju (1846 – 1926) was an army officer and politician. Born in the Choshu domain (now Yamaguchi Prefecture), he entered the Army Ministry after the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Despite his Choshu origins, he became a vocal opponent of the Choshu-Satsuma monopoly of government power. Appointed minister to Korea in 1895, he was imprisoned for his part in the assassination of Queen Min, but later released. He entered politics as a member of the Kensei Honto party and was named to the Privy Council in 1910.

Yamashiro was a generational kettle casting family that worked in Tokyo.

Made to suspend in a tokonoma alcove, this sleek, stylized bat would have been seen flying through incense as if through evening clouds.