Meiji Jizai Lobster

Meiji-era jizai lobster.
Bronze, iron.
Japan.
Late 19th century.
L. 17.7 inches.

This life-sized bronze lobster is a perfect example of the Japanese art of okimono (置物, or “ornamental figure”) of the jizai (自在) type, meaning “free” (in the sense of “freely moving” or “freely articulated”). Since the Edo period, sculptors who mastered the art of jizai owed much of their skill to Japanese armorers, whose craftsmanship was increasingly less in demand but who were adept at creating complex, partially articulated metal pieces.

The influence of these armorers likely explains the predilection of Japanese sculptors of that time for crustaceans, which, like armor, possess a kind of articulated shell, one of the primary functions of their carapace. Here, however, the ingenuity of these artisans goes beyond the naturalistic reproduction of the shell: this jizai lobster also features movable eyes, while its legs have two points of articulation and its antennae, three.

This lobster bears no legible signature and is likely an object intended for export, created during the bummei-kaika (文明開化), the great opening to the West undertaken during the Meiji era.

Sources

Iwao Seiichi, Iyanaga Teizo, et al., Dictionnaire historique du Japon, Tokyo, 1987 ; Harada Kazutoshi, Articulated iron figures of animals. Jizai Okimono, Kyoto, 2010 ; Gérard Siary, Histoire du Japon. Des origines à nos jours, Paris, 2020.