Rabbit - Japanese Bronze By Takahashi Kaishu (1905-2004)

Okimono or sculpture in the form of a rabbit. Cast bronze, inlaid with silver. Signed on the reverse with the artist's signature inlaid in silver Isamu. Showa period, circa 1950. With the original tomobako or box, inscribed on the outside of the lid: Kaga Zogan or Kaga inlays and titled "return of the rabbit", and on the reverse of the lid signed: Kaishu saku or made by Kaishu, and sealed.

Takahashi KAISHU (1905-2004), artist name of Takahashi Isamu, born in 1905 in Kanazawa, graduated from the Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1929. In the same year, he was admitted to the Teiten (exhibition organized by the Imperial Academy of Arts from 1919 until 1934). In 1930, Kaishu exhibited in Belgium at the World's Fair and received an award, also winning a gold medal in 1933 at the Chicago World's Fair. After the war, Takahashi Kaishu continued to exhibit. In 1982, he was designated an Important Intangible Cultural Property (commonly known as Ningen Kokuho or Living National Treasure). He is one of the most prominent artists who continued to work in the Kaga metalworking tradition involving bronze casting and soft metal inlay. His modernist adaptations of traditional techniques are widely collected.

Kaga metalwork, named Kaga Zogan, was first made when the second lord of Kaga, Maeda Toshinaga (1562–1614), invited a metalwork specialist from the Goto family of Kyoto to develop ornamental techniques in his fiefdom. There are two main Kaga Zogan techniques: Hira Zogan (flat inlays) and Ito Zogan (wire inlays), which are regularly used together.

For another of his pieces, in the collection of the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum, see The Art of Ishikawa, plate 288.