Meiji-era Jizai Spiny Lobster

Bronze
Japan
Late 19th Century
l. 44 cm (17.3 in)

This bronze spiny lobster bears a partially illegible signature, making it impossible to identify the master bronzesmith who crafted it. With its numerous points of articulation, it serves as a fine example of the Japanese art of okimono (置物, or “ornamental figure”) of the jizai (自在) type — meaning “free of movement” or “freely articulated”.

Sculptors who mastered the art of jizai since the Edo period drew much of their technique from Japanese armorers. These craftsmen were highly skilled in manufacturing complex, partially articulated metal pieces ; however, their expertise was increasingly less in demand during the cultural and technical modernization of Japan under Emperor Meiji and the bummei-kaika (文明開化)—the "Civilization and Enlightenment" movement characterized by the country's great opening toward the West.

See 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.