Lot 1373. Property from Mr Yamanaka Tateo. A carved tricolour lacquer 'chrysanthemum' box and cover, Song dynasty (960-1279); 15.3 cm diam., Japanese wood box. Price realised HKD 756,000 (Estimate HKD 300,000 – HKD 500,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2024.

Provenance: Bishamondo Temple, Yamashima, Kyoto, by repute

Note: A slightly smaller (14.5 cm.) carved black lacquer box of this pattern, dated to the Southern Song Dynasty, was included in the Nezu Institute of fine arts, Tokyo, exhibition, ‘The Colors and Forms of Song and Yuan China’, and illustrated in the catalogue no. 106.

Yamanaka Tateo: A Remarkable Career in Asian Art

For nearly 60 years, Yamanaka Tateo 山中建生 the owner of Seikado art gallery精華堂 in Tokyo has specialised in works of art from China, Korea and Japan. The passion and dedication he has for his subject is evident in recounting his personal story and highlights from his long career. He has devoted much of his life to furthering his connoisseurship by regularly visiting museums and libraries and amassing a substantial library. His broad knowledge enabled him to seize opportunities and acquire important artworks in the fiercely competitive Japanese antique market, while his scholarly demeaner facilitated his interactions with academics and curators.

Mr. Yamanaka was initially exposed to the art and antique market while visiting his elder brother who worked for a Ukiyo-e print gallery in Ueno 上野, Tokyo. In 1967, he joined Fugendo 不言堂 run by the legendary art dealer Goro Sakamoto 坂本五郎 (1923-2016) who dealt in a wide range of East Asian art and antiques. At that time very few Japanese art dealers had international business dealings, Goro Sakamoto relied on Mr Yamanaka fluency in English and regularly sent him abroad, primarily to Europe, to acquire pieces. On these trips he met important dealers such as Edward T. Chow and Giuseppe Eskenazi. He acquired a guanyao mallet vase in Europe that was later sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in 2008 for HK$67,000,000.

Mr. Yamanaka handled many important pieces that are now preserved in public institutions including four Japanese national museums in Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara and Kyushu. One of the most notable events in his career occurred on 23 October 1973 at Sasazuka-kai 笹塚会, one of the most prestigious dealer's auctions in Tokyo. While Mr Yamanaka was delivering Fugendo’s consignment for the auction, he saw a large group of people huddled around something, he pushed through the crowd to see what they were looking at. To his surprise, there sat a magnificent blue and white jar from Yuan dynasty painted with fish within a lotus pond in a brilliant cobalt blue, reminding him of another jar he had seen in the Brooklyn Museum. Mr Yamanaka immediately phoned his master, Mr Sakamoto, who was attending another dealer’s auction in Kyushu. Excited, he urged Mr Sakamoto to purchase it, regardless of the price. As Mr Sakamoto was more than 1,000km away, he could not return in time to inspect the ‘vase’ before the sale. Mr Yamanaka was still an apprentice, and as such it was highly unusual for him to make such a strong plea, however moved by Mr Yamanaka’s passionate appeal, Mr Sakamoto gave him the authority to buy the jar, no matter the cost. After fierce competition, he won the jar for JPY 90 million, a record price at the time which was widely reported in the media. The news reached the collector, Ataka Eiichi 安宅英一 (1901-1994) who was on holiday in Switzerland. He cut his trip short and immediately returned to Tokyo, racing to Fugendo in Nihonbashi directly from Hanada Airport to acquire the jar. The jar is widely recognized as one of the masterpieces from the Ataka Collection now housed in The Museum of Oriental Ceramics Museum, Osaka.After completing his 10 years apprenticeship at Fugendo, Mr. Yamanaka opened his own gallery in 1985, Seikado, in Nihonbashi. The name of Seikado was taken from a phrase written by Okakura Tenshin岡倉天心 (1863 - 1913), a pioneer in the field of Western Art History, in his preface in the first issue of Kokka 國華, the first art historical journal in Japan. He wrote “exquisite art works are seika 精華of an nation…”. 精 represents principle or essence, 華 represents flower”. The name of gallery represents Mr Yamanaka’s wish to handle significant art works for which the Japanese aesthetic and a cultural element co-exist. He decided to focus his attention within Japan where he found hidden or forgotten important art works stored in warehouses of old Japanese families which he then sold, many to public and private institutions; this he found more exciting than travelling abroad.

For Mr Yamanaka, Buddhist Art became an important subject of personal and professional interest. Among the great number of Buddhist art masterpieces he handled in his career, the Kamakura period Buddhist painting “The Buddha Entering Nirvana” now in Kyushu National Museum is one of the most important and notable for its exquisite quality. The painting measures nearly three meters high, it richly depicts Nirvana with the central figure of Buddha surrounded demeanor by his disciples, arhat and animals. While similar Nirvana paintings are known, such as those in the Freer Gallery of Art and The Metropolitan Museum, the quality of the one in Kyushu is more striking in its realistic and humanised depiction of the multiple figures. The painting is also important for academics as it bears an inscription to the reverse dating to 1323. It was known to have been in the collection of Fujita family before WW2, thence missing until Mr Yamanaka discovered it in Osaka. He later sold it directly to Kyushu National Museum and subsequently registered as Important Cultural Property.Antique dealers play and essential role in the Japanese domestic market, they supply works of art to collectors, museums and academics; only professionals are able to attend the dealer’s auctions where the works are traded. Mr Yamanaka organizes one of the many dealer’s auctions, Towankai 桃碗会, where notable Chinese paintings are often sold. In this context, Mr Yamanaka is one of the most prominent antique dealers in Japan providing seika 精華of his country to public museums and the market as a whole.

The Chinese works of art offered in this auction are from Mr Yamanaka’s personal collection formed over many years, mostly sourced from old family collections. He acknowledged that it has been a great joy to be able to own the present guanyao bowl (lot 1377), for Mr Yamanaka it represents the sublime beauty of Southern Song dynasty to which the aesthetics of Japanese culture has its roots.

Lot 1374. Property from Mr Yamanaka Tateo. A black lacquer mallow-form dish, Song dynasty (960-1279); 13.7 cm diam., Japanese wood box. Price realised HKD 176,400 (Estimate HKD 100,000 – HKD 150,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2024.

Note: Compare to a similar lacquer dish, but larger, (22.5 cm.), included in the Nezu Institute of fine arts, Tokyo, exhibition, ‘The Colors and Forms of Song and Yuan China’, and illustrated in the catalogue no. 20.

Lot 1375. Property from Mr Yamanaka Tateo. A black lacquer dish, Song dynasty (960-1279); 15.2 cm diam., Japanese wood box. Price realised HKD 37,800 (Estimate HKD 60,000 – HKD 80,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2024.

Provenance: Acquired in 2012

Note: Compare to a similar lacquer dish (12.6 cm.), included in the Nezu Institute of fine arts, Tokyo, exhibition, ‘The Colors and Forms of Song and Yuan China’, and illustrated in the catalogue no. 17.

Lot 1367. Property from the Yidetang Collection. A rare carved cinnabar lacquer 'lion' dish, Yuan-early Ming dynasty; 17.8 cm diam. Price realised HKD 819,000 (Estimate HKD 400,000 – HKD 600,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2024.

Provenance: Sold at Christie's London, 6 December 1993, lot 142
Sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29 April 2002, lot 676

Note: The dish is finely carved to depict two Buddhist lions divided by a ribboned brocade ball, all amidst lingzhi scrolls reserved on a cash-coins ground, repeated on the raised border. The black-lacquered base lightly incised with the maker’s mark, Zhou Ming Zao, ‘made by Zhou Ming’.

Compare the dish also incised Zhou Ming Zao, illustrated by Lee Yu-Kuan in Oriental Lacquer Art, p.142, fig. 73, together with an illustration of the mark. Compare also an octofoil dish carved with birds and a circular box, cover and stand each with the same inscription, exhibited by the Tokugawa and Nezu Museums, 1984, catalogue, p.46, no.54 and p.87, no.121.

The presence of Buddhist lions on 14^th century lacquer pieces is rare. Compare with a Yongle box with similar design in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in A Special Exhibition of Lacquer Wares in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1981, no.11.

For examples of trays and dishes of this period with the same distinctive diaper rim, one illustrated by Regina Krahl and Brian Morgan, from Innovation to Conformity, p.34, pl.8 and p.38, pl.10; one by Yasuhiro Nishioka, Chinese Lacquerware, p.43, col.pl.40; Derek Clifford, Chinese Carved Lacquer, p.50, pl.32 and p.64, pl.38; and Lee Yu-kwan, Chinese Lacquer, an exhibition at the Royal Scottish Museum, 1964, Catalogue, no. SYL5.

Lot 1425. A rare carved cinnabar lacquer 'scholars' bowl, Ming dynasty, 15th-16th century; 12.7 cm diam. Price realised HKD 378,001 (Estimate HKD 300,000 – HKD 500,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2024.

Note: The exterior is inscribed with an excerpt from the poem Changgexing by Tang dynasty poet Li Qin.

Lot 1422. An imperial polychrome lacquer 'Winged dragon' octogonal box and cover, Jiajing incised and gilt six-character mark in a vertical line and of the period (1522-1566); 28 cm wide. Price realised HKD 1,512,000 (Estimate HKD 1,200,000 – HKD 2,000,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2024.

Note: The cover is superbly carved through thick layers of cinnabar lacquer to a green ground depicting a powerful scaly five clawed dragon with its wings widespread, leaping through cloud and frame scrolls below a flaming pearl, all within a bracket lobed carto uche enclosed in an octagonal panel. The slanted sides are divided into eight panels, each enclosing a bracket lobed cartouche depicting a different mythical animal; the straight sides separated into eight rectangular panels alternating between cranes and phoenix, each carved against a yellow ground. The pattern is similarly repeated on the sides of the box. The interiors and base are lacquered black. The centre of the base is incised and gilt with the reign mark in a vertical line.

The unusual dragon depicted on this magnificent box is known as yinglong, a type of winged dragon mentioned in various ancient texts including Shan Hai Jing, which was compiled by Liu Xiang and his son Liu Qin in the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), and revised by Guo Pu in the Eastern Jin period (AD 317-420). The yinglong was believed to be a rain bearer, and was prayed to during droughts. It was regarded as a benevolent and auspicious creature, and thus, its depiction on a lacquer box made for imperial use was highly appropriate.

It is extremely rare to find ying dragons on lacquer wares. Only one other identical example is known, which possibly forms a pair with the current box. This example is from the Lee Family Collection and was exhibited at The Museum of East Asian Art, Cologne, Dragon and Phoenix: Chinese Lacquer Ware, The Lee Family Collection, Tokyo, Cologne, 24 March to 24 June 1990, and is illustrated in the catalogue front cover and on p. 27 and pl. 56. The Lee Family box bears the same design and shape, except the dragon’s fifth claw has been removed on all four limbs. While to the contrary, all claws on the current box are well preserved.

Lot 1426. A carved cinnabar lacquer 'Shou' dish, Jiajing incised and gilt six-character mark in a vertical line and of the period (1522-1566); 16.7 cm wide, Japanese wood box. Price realised HKD 579,000 (Estimate HKD 300,000 – HKD 500,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2024.

Note: Compare to a carved polychrome lacquer dish of similar decoration and form, also bearing Jiajing six-character mark in the Ashmolean Museum Collection, illustrated by Impey, O. R., and M. Tregear, Oriental Lacquer: Chinese and Japanese Lacquer from the Ashmolean Museum Collections, Oxford, 1983, p. 2, Cat. No.: no. 2 on p. viii.

Lot 1424. A carved Yunnan-style cinnabar lacquer 'Three friends of winter and insect' box and cover, Ming dynasty, 16th century; 28.7 cm diam. Price realised HKD 819,000 (Estimate HKD 400,000 – HKD 600,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2024.

Note: Compare to a very similar box from the Qing court collection, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, Hong Kong, 2006, p.129, no. 96.

Lot 1366. Property from the Yidetang Collection. A rare imperial carved cinnabar lacquer 'luohan' brushpot, Qing dynasty, 18th century; 17 cm diam. Price realised HKD 756,000 (Estimate HKD 300,000 – HKD 500,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2024.

Provenance: Sold at Christie's London, 29 April 2001, lot 528

Note: The exterior of the cylindrical brush pot is finely carved to depict eighteen luohan in various pursuits, with a dragon emerging from breaking waves, all reserved on a green ocean-wave ground.

Compare with a similar cinnabar lacquer brush pot, depicting the same subject in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Lacquer Wares of the Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 2006, p.97, no.66.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 29 November 2024