Vase in a wide mouthed swelling form set on a tall foot, the whimsical handles in the form of stylized penguins stretching the lip with their beaks. Of cast and patinated bronze. Signed on the reverse with a chiseled signature by the artist: Junmin Saku or Made by Junmin (Yamamoto Junmin, 1888 – 1962). Showa 28 or 1953.

With the tomobako or original box, inscribed on the exterior of the lid: Karado Suikin Mimi Kabin or Bronze Water-bird Handle Vase; and on the reverse of the lid signed by the artist: Yamamoto Junmin Saku or Made by Yamamoto Junmin, and sealed: Junmin.

This vase or an identical one was made for exhibition at the 9th Nitten in 1953, and it is illustrated in the Nittenshi, volume 17, page 499, number 430.

Yamamoto Junmin lived in Nara and graduated from the Tokyo School of Fine Arts. He studied under the bronze sculptors Asakura Fumio and Katori Hozuma. Junmin was first accepted into the government-sponsored exhibitions with the 9th Teiten in 1928, returning to the 11th Teiten in 1930, the 13th – 15th in 1932 – 1934, the Bunten Kansaten in 1936, the 1st and 3rd Shin-Bunten in 1937 and 1939, the Hoshukuten in 1940, the 4th Shin-Bunten in 1941, and the Senji Tokubetsuten in 1944. After the Pacific War, he was a frequent Nitten exhibitor, including the 1st and 2nd Nitten in 1946, and the 3rd – 11th in 1947 – 1955.

As much a sculpture as a vase, this charming bronze reveals a light-hearted abstraction that speaks to the mood of the 1950s.