By Kano Tessai (1845-1925), signed Tessai with kakihan
Japan, dated 1921

Finely carved, the wizened face of the elderly man detailed in wood with a hinged jaw, decorated in pigment over gesso and applied with decorative cotton eyebrows and a long beard of horsehair. Signed to the verso TESSAI with kakihan.

Inscribed to the interior Nanto, Narazaka, Yuge jinja homotsu. Kenkyu gannen junigatsu hi hoshu owaru. Genko-ji, Shamu Kaitei ju hachijuku. Tessai mosu. [This is carved by Kano Tessai from the original treasure at the Yuge Shrine, at Narazaka, Nara. The shrine is believed to have been restored on a day in the twelfth month of the first year of the Kenkyu era (corresponding to 1190). Permission was granted to copy the original, now in the collection at the Gango-ji Temple (Nara), by a priest called Kaitei aged 89 years.] 南都、寧楽坂、弓削神社寶物。建久元年十二月日修補畢。元興寺、沙彌快貞壽八十九、花押。銕哉模。花押. With the kakihan of the priest Kaitei and of Kano Tessai.

HEIGHT 17.7 cm

Condition: Excellent condition with minor wear and natural imperfections, minor flaking, and some rubbing.
Provenance: Collection of Drs. Edmund and Julia Lewis, Chicago, Illinois, United States. Bonhams, 18 June 2021, New York, lot 31. Drs. Edmund Jean and Julia Breyer Lewis are renowned experts in nephrology who met professionally and later married in 1997, and have since continued to collect art together, actively seeking the best they could find from the finest dealers in the field. Known for their keen scholarship and high aesthetic standards, for the past three decades Ed and Julie have focused on collecting lacquer art, painting, and Buddhist sculpture from Japan. As they traveled widely their desire to collect Buddhist art grew, and they have expanded their collection to include important Pan-religious sculpture from Greater Asia.

With a silk brocade storage bag and a tomobako inscribed to the top of the cover Okina men [A mask of Okina] 翁面 and to its interior Taisho ju kanoe-saru toshi shuka Nanto nite daisu, Kasuga sanroku Saisho shoja, Tessai yaro [Made by Kano Tessai, professing myself a humble old man who lives in the countryside, at the beginning of summer, in the tenth year of the Taisho period (corresponding to 1921), at the studio Saisho Shoja, located at the foot of Mount Kasuga, Nara] 大正十庚申年首夏題於南都、春日山麓最勝精舎、銕哉野老, and with the seal Tessai with kakihan.

Kano Tessai (1845-1925) was born in Gifu prefecture. At an early age he was sent to study painting and calligraphy at several Buddhist temples. Upon the Meiji restoration in 1868, Tessai decided to leave the priesthood and devote his life to studying famous artifacts in the temple collections throughout Japan and the techniques used in their making. Through this he became familiar with the vast collections of masks housed in temples such as Todaiji and Horyuji in Nara, which became the inspiration for most of his work. He also accompanied Ernest Fenellosa on his survey of temples around Kyoto and Nara. He was present during the opening of the Yumedono at Horyuji when the Kudara Kannon was revealed to the world in 1884 for the first time in many years. In 1887 Tessai was appointed professor in the Department of Sculpture of the newly established Tokyo Art School, but he resigned shortly thereafter to return to his life as an artist. Tessai's principal works included netsuke, pipecases, models of religious artifacts and accessories for tea gatherings.

Auction comparison:
Compare a large mask for the Bugaku dance by the same artist, 29.2 cm high, at Christie’s, Japanese and Korean Art, 21 September 2006, New York, lot 288 (sold for USD 3,600 or approx. EUR 5,200 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing).