FUJIWARE IEHISA: A LARGE IKENOBO SCHOOL BRONZE ‘WRITHING DRAGONS’ USUBATA (FLOWER VASE)

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FUJIWARE IEHISA: A LARGE IKENOBO SCHOOL BRONZE ‘WRITHING DRAGONS’ USUBATA (FLOWER VASE) By Fujiware Iehisa, signed Fujiwara Iehisa saku Japan, Edo period (1615-1868) Finely cast, the flattened hemispherical body raised on a spreading foot, with sharply angled shoulders rising to a waisted neck with a flaring rim and a broad circular mouth. The neck is fitted on opposing sides with small pegs designed to receive two separately cast, three-clawed dragons, with their scaly bodies powerfully animated in dynamic movement, while their faces are distinguished by gilt bulging eyes and prominent muzzles revealing bared fangs, framed on either side by flowing whiskers and long horns. Inscriptions: Kyo Yamashiro ju, Yamada Tsushima no jo, Fujiwara Iehisa saku 京山城住、山田對島掾、藤原家久作 [made by Fujiwara Iehisa, with the Yamada Tsushima no jo title, resident of Yamashiro, Kyoto]. HEIGHT 31.9 cm, DIAMETER 28.8 cm With a fitted wood presentation stand, preserved in a cloth pouch, and a signed and inscribed wood tomobako (storage box), with a Japanese leaflet with the biography of the artist. Ikenobo is the oldest and largest school of ikebana, the Japanese practice of arranging plants and flowers and imbuing them with renewed vitality. The Buddhist practice associated with Ikenobo dates to the construction of the Rokkaku-do temple. The organized school institution was established in the fifteenth century by the Buddhist monk Senno and remains based at the same temple in Kyoto. The name is derived from a pond (ike) where Prince Shotoku is said to have bathed while searching for the site of the Rokkaku-do temple, and from a small hut (bo) constructed near the pond that later served as residence for priests. See Joe Earle, Flower Bronzes of Japan, 1995, p. 88-94.

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