| architecture |
| calligraphy |
| ceramics |
| clothing |
| comics |
| gardens |
| lacquerwork |
| literature |
| movies |
| music |
| painting |
| poetry |
| sculpture |
| tea ceremony |
| television |
| theatre |
| weaponry |
| thematic routes |
| timeline |
| the site |
context: lacquerwork > artists
|
a rosewood-look lacquered box |
Shibata Zeshin 1807-1891
Zeshin is one of my favourite artists in any form. He was apprenticed to Koma Kansai II (see a few pages backwards from here) from age 10 or 11, and also learned painting, which is where he first made his name. He mastered an astonishingly wide range of lacquer techniques, including some that had been lost, and some he invented himself. The work shown here is lacquer imitating rosewood. You might recognise the butterfly-dovetail insert as being a commonplace way of repairing the crack that I hope is just about visible in the enlargement, running down to the metal staple. Except there is no crack or dovetail insert or staple - these are all fakes. He did this trick a few times.
Zeshin's finest set of inro
Zeshin the painter
backwards: toyo iizuka