Vase in a squared baluster form lightly indented at the corners, the sides with oval reserves in relief ornamented with abstract whirlpool designs. Of layered and carved colored lacquers over a dry lacquer base. Signed on the reverse in silver raised lacquer by the artist: Mugai (Watanabe Mugai, active 1930s – 1960s). Early Showa era, circa 1935 – 1940.

With the tomobako or original box, inscribed on the exterior of the lid: Kanshitsu Somon Tsubo or Dry Lacquer Layered Design Vase; and on the reverse of the lid signed: Mugai Saku or Made by Mugai, and sealed: Mugai.

A lacquer artist from Niigata Prefecture, Watanabe Mugai exhibited at the 2nd Shin-Bunten in 1938, at the Hoshukuten in 1940, and following the Pacific War at the 1st Nitten in 1946. He was a member of the Echigo Kogei Bijutsu Kai-in (Echigo Province Association of Crafts and Fine Art), and won prizes at the Niigata Prefectural Exhibition.

Elegant and strikingly modern in design, this vase by Watanabe Mugai conveys the radical creativity of Japanese artists working in the 1930s. Mugai built up alternating layers of colored lacquers to ornament the reserves, then carved through them to create abstract wavering pools (an effect similar to that of a topographical map). The startling color palette of intense orange, pale green, brown and tan reflects a radical aesthetic in terms of traditional lacquers. The formality of the vase’s elegant form plays off the shimmering whirlpools floating on the sides.

The tan coloration was an innovation not seen in lacquers before the 1920s. It was achieved with ground titanium, a metal that is very hard to carve even dispersed as here in a lacquer medium.