A Tokyo School bronze okimono group of a bear and cub By Kaniya Kuniharu (fl. circa 1869), Meiji Period
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Find your local specialistA Tokyo School bronze okimono group of a bear and cub
Both perched on rocky crag on a chiselled bronze plate representing a river, the adult reaching down with one fore paw to catch a fish swimming by, her offspring beside her waiting in anticipation for its feed, signed in hiragana script Kaniya Kuniharu saku. 44cm (17¼in) high, 60cm (23½in) across.
Footnotes
銅置物 親子熊 蟹谷国晴 明治時代
Kaniya Kuniharu was one of the foremost craftsmen in cast bronze of the Meiji Period. He had been taught by two partiucularly eminent artists, Takamura Koun (1852-1934) and Otake Norikuni (b.1852). Koun, a master of wood sculpture, had been appointed Professor of sculpture a the founding of the Tokyo Art School in 1889.
Kuniharu himself was one of the founding members of the Tokyo Chukin Kai (Tokyo Cast Metal Association) in 1907 together with Oshima Joun (1858-1940). He exhibited at both National and International exhibitions, including the Paris Exposition of 1900; the high quality of this bronze group could very well have been conceived for exhibition in the West.
Compare with the maker's other examples of fine quality bronze pieces in the Khalili Collection, illustrated by Joe Earle, Splendors of Imperial Japan, Arts of the Meiji Period from the Khalili Collection, pp.370 and 372, nos.263 and 264.
