Okimono of an Ox

An ox with its head thrown back and muzzle raised, modelled in dry lacquer (kanshitsu) and finished in brown lacquer (nuri). The lacquer is an even, warm reddish brown over the whole surface, with a smooth satin sheen. The body is broad and rounded, while the legs, hooves and short curved horns are cut in crisp, faceted planes. Accompanied by a tomobako, inscribed kanshitsu ushi okimono and signed Shogo saku with the seal Ban'ura.

BAN'URA Shogo was a lacquer artist born in Nanao, Ishikawa Prefecture, in 1901. He moved to Kyoto around 1924 to study lacquer, and in 1930 was accepted for the first time into the 11th Teiten with "Aki no yo makie tana". He received a special-selection prize (tokusen) at the 1936 Bunten with "Soka-zu saishitsu tsuitate", and an honour prize at the 1937 Paris World's Fair. After the war he founded and led the lacquer group Sojinsha (1945–1953), afterwards forming Shugenkai, but his principal venue became the Nitten. There he served repeatedly as a juror from 1947, became a councillor in 1958, and a full member in 1962. His 1962 Nitten work won the Japan Art Academy Prize the following year. He went on to serve as director (1971), advisor (1976), and councillor (1980) of the Nitten. In 1966 he completed a large four-panel lacquer mural, "Shaka judai deshi" (Ten Great Disciples of the Buddha), for the Gokuraku-mon gate at Shitenno-ji, Osaka. He founded and chaired the Kyoto Lacquer Artists Association from 1971. He was honoured as a Kyoto Prefecture Art and Craft Meritorious Person (1972) and a Kyoto City Cultural Meritorious Person (1974), and received the Order of the Rising Sun, Fourth Class, in 1981.