Natsume with Mt. Fuji by Soshin KITAHAMA

A large natsume, lacquered in deep black and polished to a mirror finish. A red Mount Fuji fills the lid. Its slopes are built up in graduated red lacquer with softly blurred edges, and fine lines trace the ridges. Below the mountain, a haze of sprinkled gold drifts down over the shoulder onto the body. There the landscape continues with gnarled pines in gold maki-e, their needle clusters crisply drawn. Behind them, scattered gold thickens into a gold ground towards the foot. The interior and base are finished in nashiji. With its original tomobako, inscribed Fujisan maki-e o-natsume and signed Soshin with seal.

KITAHAMA Soshin was born in 1952 in Wajima, the lacquer town on the Noto Peninsula. He is a certified Traditional Craftsman (dento kogeishi) of Wajima lacquer and a member of the Shin Nihon Bijutsuin. His work has received numerous awards, among them the President's Prize of the Wajima City Craft Artists Association, the Chairman's Prize of the Wajima City Council, and a special selection gold prize at the Shin-in exhibition. Several of his works carry box inscriptions by the grand masters of the Senke schools of tea.