A SUPERB ARCHAISTIC DING CENSER BY KANO TESSAI, DATED 1914 Japan, Nara, possibly made by the order of a Chinese patron. Masterfully carved from a single section of bamboo and finely polished to highlight the natural beauty of the material. The censer is set on three sturdy cylindrical feet and the artist’s signature is ingeniously incised in seal form where an inscription would be found on the original censer. Inscriptions: To base, signed ‘Tessai sei’. Provenance: Collection of Drs. Edmund and Julie Lewis. Known for their keen scholarship and high aesthetic standards, for the past three decades the couple has focused on collecting lacquer art, painting, and Buddhist sculpture from Japan. Both physicians and internationally recognized as renowned experts in nephrology, they hold positions as tenured professors at Rush Medical College in Chicago and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, respectively. They met professionally and later married in 1997, and have since continued to collect Japanese art together, actively seeking the best they could find from the finest dealers in the field. As they travelled widely, their desire to collect Buddhist art grew, and they have expanded their collection to include important Pan-religious sculpture from Greater Asia. Condition: Excellent condition with minor wear and traces of use. Good, naturally grown patina. Weight: 1,229 g Dimensions: Height 13 cm, Diameter 13 cm The design of the present incense burner is copied faithfully from Chinese Shang and Zhou-dynasty ding censers, which were admired by many scholars of the period. Masterfully carved with two looped handles atop a flat rim and above a finely incised circumferential seal script (tensho) around the body. The natural form of the bamboo clearly emulates the warping of the bronze on the original censer. Kano Tessai (1845–1925) came from a Gifu family and started his life as a Buddhist priest, though his father instructed him in the art of carving. He studied Chinese literature and drawing and was a professor at Tokyo art school in 1872. He was also on the examining committee for investigating the ancient art of Japan and subsequently went to Nara where he engaged in the reproductions of old objects of art, such as the present example. With a wood tomobako storage box labeled Chikutei (Bamboo ding) and inscribed on the interior with a kaisho transcription of the tensho inscription on the bamboo censer, including a date of Taisho sannen (1914), signature, red seal and the artist’s kakihan. (2)