Vase in the form of a silkworm cocoon resting on a mulberry leaf and two smaller cocoons, from which have emerged two young silk moths now alit on the top and sides of the large cocoon. The vase cast of sentoku or crystalline yellow bronze, the moths and smaller cocoons of hammered and cold-chiseled shibuichi or silver bronze, the mulberry leaf first cast and then engraved. With the original, carved rosewood stand. Signed with a chiseled signature on the reverse of the mulberry leaf by the artist: Hoshu (Kihara Hoshu, active late 19th – early 20th century). Meiji 31 or 1898.

With a period storage box.

Kihara Hoshu worked in Tokyo, in the Hana Koen Machi district of Ueno. A member of the Tokyo Chokin-kai or Tokyo Casting Association, he exhibited at the association’s Chokin Kyogi-kai or the Competitive Exhibition. Adept not just at casting but at hammering and chiseling work, his wild goose okimono in patinated silver took a bronze medal at the 12th Competitive Exhibition of the Sculpture Association (In the Works of Living Artists category).

Then in 1898, he showed this small sculptural vase in the form of a silk worm cocoon resting on a mulberry leaf with moths at the 13th Competitive Exhibition of the Sculpture Association (in the Works of Living Artists category).

Independent Administrative Institution National Institutes for Cultural Heritage Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties http://www.tobunken.go.jp/materials/gahou/208891.html

This intimate sculpture would have been displayed on a writing desk or perhaps a formal tana shelf with other prized miniature artworks.

The motif balances the smaller shibuichi cocoons, mulberry leaf and moths asymmetrically against the large glowing yellow bronze. The artist saw in his mind’s eye an elegant and perfectly balanced distillation of reality. His young silk moths spread their wings in scale with their living cousins. He chose contrasting colorations of metal, the subtly crystalline sentoku acting as a frame for the shibuichi. Then Hoshu textures the silver bronze surfaces with different chisels, like a painter picking up different brushes to achieve refinements of naturalism. Though a tendril of flowering vine might briefly make this its home, what Kihara Hoshu imagined was an okimono, a small sculpture that would rest in the palm of one’s hand as beautifully as it might distract a poet from her brush.

Artist Name: Kihara Hoshu
Period: Meiji Taisho
Mediums: Metalwork
Form: Vase
Origin Country: Japan
4 3/8” high x 3 ¾” x 2 7/8”

This piece is no longer available.