KITAGAWA HOKUSEN I: A MAGNIFICENT AND RARE ‘HATCHING CICADA’ DOUBLE-GOURD BRONZE VASE, DATED 1922
Lot 31 - JPN1225

By Kitagawa Hokusen I (Motoyoshi, 1865-1922), signed Mito Hokusen with kakihan
Japan, dated 1922

The sentoku bronze vase of elegant double-gourd form, inlaid in shakudo and gold takazogan with naturalistic ivy leaves encircling the shoulder, finely detailed with minute precision. The body applied with a cicada husk that can be removed and replaced with a lifelike cicada, ingeniously representing the moment of hatching. The cicada, long a symbol of rebirth and transformation, evokes the passage of time and the cycle of life and death. Signed to the side “made by Hokusen at the age of seventy-seven (corresponding to 1922)” with an elaborate gold kakihan and with a large circular seal to the underside reading MITO HOKUSEN.

HEIGHT 26.5 cm
WEIGHT 3.3 kg

Condition: Excellent condition with minor expected wear, including a few light surface scratches mostly to the base.

With the original wood tomobako (storage box) inscribed: 'Carved cicadas on a gourd-shaped vase. Made at the age of 77. Kitagawa Hokusen.'

Kitagawa Hokusen I (1846-1922) was born in Mito, present-day Ibaraki Prefecture. He studied under the renowned Mito metalworker Sekijoken Motozane and became one of the most accomplished successors of that tradition. His works exemplify the transition from sword-fitting craftsmanship of the Edo period to the refined sculptural bronzes of the Meiji and Taisho eras.

Hokusen exhibited widely and was awarded a gold medal at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago for his silver bantam cockerels and gilt-bronze figure of a youth on a tortoise. He also received commissions from the Imperial Household, including a silver lion censer and a “crab-in-stream” vase. Around 1890 he produced a hyogogusari tachi sword mounting on commission for the Mito Tokugawa family, now linked to holdings in the Tokyo National Museum and Tokugawa Museum.

In his later years, Hokusen continued to work in Mito and was associated with early craft education at the Tokyo Fine Arts School. Museum collections today include pieces by him at the Tokyo National Museum, the Mito City Museum (which holds two vases), and the Tokugawa Museum in Mito. His bronzes are recognized for their superb modeling, expressive detail, and poetic subject matter.

The double gourd, ivy, and cicada form a symbolic trinity of renewal and impermanence. The gourd (hyotan) is an ancient emblem of protection and fertility; its twin chambers suggest continuity between generations and worlds. Ivy represents endurance, its tendrils clinging to life even as seasons change. The cicada, emerging from its husk, is a classic image of rebirth, spirit, and the transient beauty of existence.

Hokusen’s masterful conception allows the viewer to interchange the empty shell with the living insect, literally enacting the moment of transformation. Created in the final year of his life, the work reads as a personal meditation on the fleeting of life and the promise of renewal. The naturalism of the insects, the luminous sentoku patina, and the subtle gold and shakudo inlays all contribute to a quiet and deeply human reflection on time, memory, and the soul’s passage.

In Japanese culture, the cicada’s short life above ground is a reminder that existence is brief, but its song endures—much like the legacy of Hokusen himself, whose art bridges the spirit of the Mito craftsmen with the new modern age.

Auction comparison:
For another work by the artist in the form of a bronze bamboo vase applied with a snail, see Bonhams, Fine Japanese Works of Art, 17 September 2013, New York, lot 3269 (sold for USD 7,500 or approx. EUR 9,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing).

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