Lot details By Masamitsu, signed Masamitsu to Japan, Tokyo, late 19th century, Meiji period (1868-1912) Finely carved as a hunter standing on a naturalistically carved base with a twig, leaves, and a small tree stump. He is holding a matchlock rifle (tanegashima) in both hands, the gun finely rendered with both roughly textured and smoothly polished elements. His face with a pleased expression showing a bucktoothed smile with narrowed eyes looking upward, perhaps he has just shot a bird. He is wearing patterned robes over a bamboo undershirt, a pouch with netsuke is attached to his belt, and a straw hat tied below the chin over his wavy hair. The underside of the base incised with the signature MASAMITSU to [carved by Masamitsu]. HEIGHT 35 cm Condition: Very good condition with minor wear and expected age cracks. Provenance: Collection of Charles Rozenfeld, Antwerp, Belgium. Charles Simon Rozenfeld (1943-2020) was a Belgian diamond dealer and keen collector of Japanese art, particularly ivory. Tanegashima, most often called in Japanese and sometimes in English hinawaju (‘matchlock gun’), was a type of matchlock-configured arquebus firearm introduced to Japan through the Portuguese Empire in 1543. Tanegashima were used by the samurai class and their ashigaru ‘foot soldiers’, and within a few years the introduction of the tanegashima in battle changed the way war was fought in Japan forever. After Tokugawa Ieyasu destroyed the Toyotomi clan in the siege of Osaka and established the Tokugawa shogunate, the relatively peaceful Edo period arrived, and the use of tanegashima declined. Isolation did not eliminate the production of guns in Japan—on the contrary, there is evidence of around 200 gunsmiths in Japan by the end of the Edo period. However, the social life of firearms had changed: as the historian David L. Howell has argued, for many in Japanese society, the gun had become less a weapon than a farm implement for scaring off animals. With no external enemies for over 200 years, tanegashima were mainly used by samurai for hunting and target practice, the majority were relegated to the arms store houses of the daimyo. Auction comparison: Compare a closely related ivory okimono of a hunter by Kyosei, dated late 19th century, Meiji period, 31 cm high, at Christie’s, 19 June 2002, London, lot 176 (sold for 8,365 GBP). Trade Certificate: The trade certificate for the sale of this lot within the EU has been granted (permit number 2022/BE03248/CE).
Lot details By Masamitsu, signed Masamitsu to Japan, Tokyo, late 19th century, Meiji period (1868-1912) Finely carved as a hunter standing on a naturalistically carved base with a twig, leaves, and a small tree stump. He is holding a matchlock rifle (tanegashima) in both hands, the gun finely rendered with both roughly textured and smoothly polished elements. His face with a pleased expression showing a bucktoothed smile with narrowed eyes looking upward, perhaps he has just shot a bird. He is wearing patterned robes over a bamboo undershirt, a pouch with netsuke is attached to his belt, and a straw hat tied below the chin over his wavy hair. The underside of the base incised with the signature MASAMITSU to [carved by Masamitsu]. HEIGHT 35 cm Condition: Very good condition with minor wear and expected age cracks. Provenance: Collection of Charles Rozenfeld, Antwerp, Belgium. Charles Simon Rozenfeld (1943-2020) was a Belgian diamond dealer and keen collector of Japanese art, particularly ivory. Tanegashima, most often called in Japanese and sometimes in English hinawaju (‘matchlock gun’), was a type of matchlock-configured arquebus firearm introduced to Japan through the Portuguese Empire in 1543. Tanegashima were used by the samurai class and their ashigaru ‘foot soldiers’, and within a few years the introduction of the tanegashima in battle changed the way war was fought in Japan forever. After Tokugawa Ieyasu destroyed the Toyotomi clan in the siege of Osaka and established the Tokugawa shogunate, the relatively peaceful Edo period arrived, and the use of tanegashima declined. Isolation did not eliminate the production of guns in Japan—on the contrary, there is evidence of around 200 gunsmiths in Japan by the end of the Edo period. However, the social life of firearms had changed: as the historian David L. Howell has argued, for many in Japanese society, the gun had become less a weapon than a farm implement for scaring off animals. With no external enemies for over 200 years, tanegashima were mainly used by samurai for hunting and target practice, the majority were relegated to the arms store houses of the daimyo. Auction comparison: Compare a closely related ivory okimono of a hunter by Kyosei, dated late 19th century, Meiji period, 31 cm high, at Christie’s, 19 June 2002, London, lot 176 (sold for 8,365 GBP). Trade Certificate: The trade certificate for the sale of this lot within the EU has been granted (permit number 2022/BE03248/CE).
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