Kenbyo or table screen with an angular, Art Deco style frame, ornamented on the front with circular, stylized bubbles; and on the reverse with a modernist design of an angler fish framed by a band of stylized waves. The frame of red-brown lacquer, with copper hardware pinned with silver; the central panel of red bronze with applied, hammered and lacquered bronze bubbles; the reverse red bronze panel chiseled in katakiribori technique with the angler fish; the chiseled wave band washed in gold lacquer and its balancing band on the left-side of silver lacquer. Signed with a chiseled signature by the artist: Yasumi Hori or Carved by Yasumi, and with a carved & gilt seal: Yasumi (Yasumi I, the go or art name of Nakajima Toyoji, 1977 – 1952). Early Showa era, circa 1930 – 1940.

With the tomobako or original box, inscribed on the exterior of the lid: Byo or Screen, then signed on the lower-left side by the artist: Toyoji Saku or Made by Toyoji, and sealed.

Yasumi I was the first generation artist of an Osaka family of metal artists. Yasumi Toyoji first won an award for his work in Meiji 41 or 1908, when he won 1st prize at the Senkatsu Kinen Exposition. After the death of the Meiji Emperor in 1912, he was commissioned by Osaka City to make a silver ship ornament as a gift to the succeeding Taisho Emperor upon his coronation. Yasumi I made designs for the Japanese mint in 1925 and helped to jury the Japanese delegation to the Paris International Exposition, at which he also received a prize for his work. In 1926, he was the first Japanese craft artist accepted into the Paris Salon. A frequent exhibitor at the Teiten from 1927, Yasumi also continued to exhibit abroad, winning a prize at the Belgian Exposition in 1931. Honored by an Imperial purchase of his work in 1932, Yasumi Toyoji also helped to jury the Hoshukuten Exhibition in 1940.

For other examples of Yasumi I’s work, c.f. Kagedo’s catalogue Breaking Light, page 113, number 107. See also Deco Japan: Shaping Art & Culture: 1920 – 1945, pages 86 – 87, number 21; page 140, number 64; and page 155, number 76.

Most of Yasumi I’s work consists of vases, executed in cast bronze with red patinations. This large-scale desk screen may have been a private commission or as likely was an exhibition piece. Angler fish were delicacies, so the bubble and sea life motif would have delighted Japanese of the time.