A heavy bronze hu vase from Japan, cast in the late Meiji or Taisho period after a Chinese ritual wine vessel that was already around three thousand years old when Japanese founders took it up. The shape keeps the swelling body and mask-form handles of the Shang and Zhou originals, but the purpose has shifted from pouring wine for the ancestors to looking good in a room, which is arguably the easier job.
The casting is thick-walled, with a dark coating inside and a calm red-brown patina outside. The base has a worn oval workshop seal, partly hidden under the patina, of the kind used by the bronze workshops of Takaoka in Toyama. Takaoka’s bronze trade goes back to 1611, when the local lord Maeda Toshinaga brought seven casters to the town, and by the turn of the twentieth century it was one of Japan’s leading centres for cast bronze.
Condition notes
Good antique condition, with an even, stable patina. Minor surface wear and small casting irregularities typical of period bronze work. The workshop seal on the base is worn and partly illegible under the patina. No cracks, repairs or structural damage.
