Japanese iron bamboo leaves with a silver frog signed Takase Kozan, Meiji Period

Japanese iron okimono modelled in the form of three partially decayed bamboo leaves attached to a small stem with a silver frog crawling across one leaf signed Kozan 好山 (of Kyoto) with kakihan and tomobako wood storage box, Meiji Period.

The Bamboo (take 竹) is the national tree of Japan and is very precious to its people. Artists have portrayed the bamboo innumerable times in their art and is a symbol of resilience and strength. The frog (kaeru 蛙) is symbolic of fertility and good fortune that will return, as the word in Japanese also means “to return”.

Takase Kozan 高瀬好山 (1869-1934) was born in Kanazawa city, Ishikawa Prefecture the eldest son of Takase Kanatake. In 1883 he started working in the pottery department of the Kobe trader Ikeda Seisuke's factory.

In 1887 he moved to the Kyoto metalwork department where he learned metalworking techniques from Tomiki Isuke II (Muneyori) and later married his daughter. In 1893 he started his own business and began selling both domestically and internationally. He became very well known for his articulated metal objects of insects and sea life. In 1910 during a visit to Kyoto the Crown Prince (who later became the Taisho Emperor) purchased several of his fine articulated insects.

He exhibited domestically at the National industrial expositions from the Taishō era to the early Shōwa and served as a judge on the board of many exhibitions.

Reference: Japanese sword-fittings and Metalwork in the Lundgren Collection, Rundoguren korekushon tōsōgu jizai kanagu, O. Nobuo and K. Terumasa, Tokyo 1992, no. 345.

Articulated Iron animals, Jizai okimono ni suite, Journal Tokyo National Museum, H. Kazutoshi 1993, 507 pp.4-17.

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