A MASSIVE JAPANESE TOKYO SCHOOL BRONZE GROUP BY UDAGAWA KAZUO

A MASSIVE JAPANESE TOKYO SCHOOL BRONZE GROUP BY UDAGAWA KAZUO

MEIJI PERIOD, 19TH CENTURY

Cast as an elderly couple preparing a meal, the woman leaning over the hearth whilst blowing on the hot coals, her companion sprinkling salt over the cooking dish, the simmering concoction containing lotus roots and a fish head; a loose square tray to his side with cooking implements, signed to the back in a square cartouche Nihon Tokyo Udagawa Kazuo sei (Japan Tokyo made by Udagawa), raised on a fitted lacquered wood stand, 52.5cm max. (3)

Udagawa Kazuo (originally called Udagawa Sutejiro) was one of the most respected sculptors of the Tokyo School of art. His works were included in the Third and Fifth Inland Industrial Exhibitions (1890 and 1903), at the Exposition Universelle in Paris (1900), the St Louis Exposition (1904), and the Great Britain and Japan Exposition (1910). Pieces by Kazuo are on display at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.