Lacquer artist's name

[Bugyotsuji]

Can anyone clarify this question?

 

The lacquer school is to be read Koami, apparently. What is the artist's name?

 

Some people see this as the known, recorded artist Gyosei 魚清　作 but the character is not terribly fish-like. Could this actually be a misreading by Wrangham, an elder 'expert'. Thanks in advance.

 

http://netsuke.websitetoolbox.com/file?id=1230240

[John A Stuart]

Hi Piers, I like the ondoku reading Koami Gyosei for this, of course Koami Issei rolls off the tongue easier. John

[Nobody]

That is an informal variant of "魚".

FYI; http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUniha ... oint=29d4b

[Bugyotsuji]

Excellent. Many thanks Moriyama san! (And to John of course!)

 

(I had wondered if it might not be this one: http://ja.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%A5%90 )

[John A Stuart]

I should have written it (typed??) 英清 John

[Bugyotsuji]

A different lacquer artist with a difficult name. Can anyone help with the first character? I think the second character is 哉 -sai, (kana).

[Nobody]

閑哉 (Kansai) ???????????

[Bugyotsuji]

Thank you, Moriyama San. Sadly I cannot find a lacquer artist with such a Kanji (there were other "Kansai" 寛、貫 lacquer artists) who made Netsuke and presumably Inro, so it has a good ring to it, but I will keep looking.

 

In the meantime here is another puzzle. It is a 煙管kisseru and Tonkotsu set, the tonkotsu being made of a single squashed section of bamboo. The final name, if there was one, may have been rubbed away, stopping at X雲哉?

 

There is a poem(?) ending 雲表 on the lid, and an explanation(?) on the reverse?

 

Apologies for the quality of the 銘 Mei photograph; the signature is very faint.

[Bugyotsuji]

Actually if I just had the Japanese typed in readable Kanji, then I would be 90% happier.

 

No need for an English translation! (Not just yet anyway...)

[Bugyotsuji]

No luck? This is my effort...(表)

画右　X 会原議一節言誠送　雲表?????

 

And on the back(裏)

一XXX言?????

信託かげ送竹小?????

宝?雲?民?????

 

As you can see, hopeless.

[Nobody]

...............

As you can see, hopeless.

My ability is more or less the same.

[Bugyotsuji]

Moriyama Sama, thank you for your reply. Any reply is 100 times better than silence!

 

May I ask you one question? I have looked at thousands of signatures in the last couple of days. This is the only example of 閑 that I can find being used by a Netsuke-Shi. It is quite close to your suggestion.

 

Is it possible to read this signature as 閑水 or maybe 閑哉?

[Nobody]

That does not read 閑哉 but 閑水, I think.

[Bugyotsuji]

That does not read 閑哉 but 閑水, I think.

 

Ah, thank you. You have been very helpful, Moriyama san.

 

It's hot nowadays. Have a beer or two!

[Bugyotsuji]

Just a quick follow-up to confirm Moriyama San's reading KAN of the above (July 16) first Kanji in the name Kan-Sai, and to say thank you. I found it in a book in London.

 

This is a photograph of an entry in Lazarnick's huge work on Netsuke, "Netsuke & Inro Artists and How to Read their Signatures. p.197, Kanji no. 413

 

Thank you!