Lot 399 Dα

Nakajima Yasumi 中島保美 (1906-1988), real name Mitsuo, was born in Osaka as the eldest son of the bronze master Nakajima Toyotsugu Yasumi I (1877-1952). He completed his education at the Kokuritsu kogei shidôsho (National Arts and Crafts Institute) in Sendai. From 1948 he was a regular exhibitor at the annual Nitten, where he won the prestigious Hokutosho (Polar Star Award) in 1952, and in 1969 he was named a Meritorious Artisan by Osaka Prefecture. His vases are characterised on the one hand by their purple patina (seidô), and on the other by their austere, almost geometric forms, which are indebted to the Art Deco of the 1930s and 1940s.