Round plaque with design of wagtail on rocks

A wagtail perches on a rock in the autumn rain. Rokkaku Shisui has to scrape together materials that were in short supply to make this work not long after he arrived in the United States to study during the Meiji era.

The grain of the Japanese oak wood of the round plaque has been used to excellent effect. On a rock formed by a paste of lacquer and clay, a wagtail sits perched in the rain. He and the scattering of autumn leaves around him have been rendered in the same paste, together with gold and silver makie. Written in red on the reverse of the plaque is the following: “Arrived in the United States in Feburary 1904. This is a memento I made when in April of the same year I felt a bit of an inspiration and scraped together materials that were in short supply at the apartment where I was staying in New York. Shisui.”
Of the members of the first class of the Tokyo Fine Arts School, Rokkaku Shisui was the only one to enter the makie department. After graduating in 1893, he became associate professor but resigned in 1898 when Okakura Tenshin left the School. In 1904 he went to the United States with Tenshin and his entourage and worked on the restoration and organization of art objects at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art until 1908. In 1916, he returned to Japan as a part-time teacher at the Tokyo Fine Arts School and in 1924 became professor. Shisui was a pioneer in Meiji era lacquer art who was active in the research and development of colored lacquer, studied Lelang lacquerware, and explored the application of Alumite in lacquer. At the same time, he exhibited and served as a juror in the Teiten and Bunten exhibitions. Considering how Shisui must have been feeling at the time this work was mede, just after he had reached the United States, this hushed scene of autumn makes us contemplative. (Writer : Hiroko Yokomizo Source : Selected Masterpieces from The University Art Museum, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music: Grand Opening Exhibition, The University Art Museum, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, 1999)