Natsume with Peacock Feather Design by Keisuke KONISHI

A medium-sized natsume (chu-natsume) of classic rounded form, finished in deep, highly polished black lacquer. A single peacock feather sweeps diagonally across the piece. Its eye sits just off-centre on the lid, and its shaft curves down over the shoulder and across the join between lid and body. The barbs are drawn in hair-fine gold lines that fan out and curl back on themselves. The vane is stippled with dense gold dots that thin out towards the tips, so the feather seems to dissolve into the black ground. The decoration is executed in chinkin, the Wajima technique of carving lines and dots into hardened lacquer and filling them with gold. Interior and base in plain black lacquer. With a kiri wood tomobako inscribed Kujaku-bane natsume ("Natsume, Peacock Feather"), signed Keisuke and sealed, a silk cloth signed and sealed by the artist, and the artist's printed chronology.

Konishi Keisuke was born in 1939 and works in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture. His work was first selected for the Nitten in 1966. Over the following decade it was shown there regularly, and also at the Nihon Gendai Kogei Bijutsu exhibition. In 1970 he was chosen for the Modern Crafts exhibition that toured North America under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He developed a distinctive method of layering coloured lacquer with chinkin, and his work takes the cosmos and the mysteries of nature as its recurring themes. He received the Tokusen (special selection) prize at the 20th Nitten in 1988 and the 24th Nitten in 1992, followed by the Nitten Members' Prize in 1998. He later served as a juror at both the Nitten and the Nikkokai exhibitions and as a councillor of the Nitten. He has been vice-chairman of the Kogei Bijutsu Nikkokai since 2016 and a director of the Ishikawa Prefecture Art and Culture Association since 2007. Locally he headed the Wajima chinkin guild. His honours include the Wajima City Culture Prize (2006) and the Ishikawa Prefecture Cultural Merit Award (2007). In 2021 he received the Commendation of the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology for Contributors to Regional Culture.