Vase in a tall, ovoid-form with a gently inset neck and foot, the surface ornamented with a massive pine trunk amidst grasses and reishi fungi (the mushrooms of immortality). Of hammered silver, cold-chiseled and with irregular, abstract gold inlay along the edges of the trunk to suggest sunlight catching the broken and lifting surface of the trunk. Signed on the back with a chiseled signature by the artist: Kiyoshi To or Carved by Kiyoshi (Unno Kiyoshi, 1884 – 1956). With the original, elaborately carved rosewood pierce-work stand. Taisho era, circa 1912 – 1926.

With the tomobako or original box, inscribed on the exterior of the lid: Choju Mannen no Zu Gin Kabin or Silver Vase (with) Motif of Ten Thousand Years of Long Life; and on the reverse of the lid: Unno Kiyoshi To or Carved by Unno Kiyoshi, and sealed: Kiyoshi.

Unno Kiyoshi was born the fourth son of Unno Shomin and became famous for the virtuosity of his katakiribori chiseling. He graduated from the Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1911. From 1917 through 1953 Kiyoshi taught metalwork at his alma mater. He was appointed a Teishitsu Gigei-in or Imperial Court Artist and as well became the director of the Nihon Chokin-kai (Japan Metalworking Association). From 1928 with the establishment of the craft section in the government-sponsored art exhibitions, Kiyoshi became an exhibitor at the Teiten and its successors. When the system was first founded in 1955, Unno Kiyoshi was designated Juyo Mukei Bunkazai or Important Intangible Cultural Asset (commonly known as a Living National Treasure) in the field of metal engraving. His artwork is in the collections of many museums in Japan, and his legacy both as an artist and a teacher brought metal engraving into the modernist tradition.

The heavier the silver, the more difficult was it to raise a vessel by uchidashi or hammering the metal, so for this masterpiece of metal engraving Unno Kiyoshi created a massive stage for the engraving of his pine design. His katakiribori chiseling dances over the surface like a painter’s brush, to soft effect in the tree trunk and hard in the sharp sprays of pine needles that fan around the branches. This contrast illustrates Kiyoshi’s theme, of the ancient pine that is ever renewed in its always green needles, the ideal of long life inherent in this and the image of reishi or the Daoist fungi of immortality.

This sophisticated piece of metal art spoke with deep immediacy to the literati class for whom it was made. Long educated in the imagery, perfectly fluent in the quality of the masterful chiseling and abstract inlay work from knowledge of sword ornaments, Kiyoshi’s audience for this vase would have felt the beauty of his work on many levels. Perhaps the most important of these would have been the educated instinct that recognizes and delights in a great artist’s flawless sense of proportion, texture, and form.