Bizen Yaki Recumbent Boar on Burl Pedestal Antique Japanese Ceramic Statue 備前焼豬

Antique Japanese Bizen Yaki Okimono
Recumbent Boar 備前焼豬
Style of Tomokazu
Signature: unsigned, Circa: Meiji, 1868-1911
H 4 in. (10cm), W 8 in. (20cm), D 5.5 in. (14cm)
Condition: overall very good!

Bizen ware is the oldest and most revered form of pottery in Japan. Widely admired for the exquisite beauty of its unglazed variant burgundy red to a brown hue, and the clay’s iron-like hardness from prolonged high-temperature firing. As shown in this finely sculpted wild boar perching on its belly, embellished with glass-eyes inlays, imposing snout raised in vigilant, whose ovaliform linear flow is deferred by the bodyweight that shifts tenuously to the right, and enlivened with finely incised curvy hairlines striation, with random dark patches in its rear from the firing process. The Wild Boar is in a somber earth tone, harmonized with the aged burl wood base it seated. Of its superb artistry, the design of the boar was originally conceived by the 18th-century carver Kano Tomokazu, the most celebrated animal netsuke carver. There is a tiny chip near its left eye socket, and a thin firing crack lines on its front leg; overall it is in very good condition.