Lacquer Plate - The Rabbit - Japan Kakutaro Yamazaki (1899-1984)

Round confectionery plate decorated with vermilion and metalic lacquer, featuring a rabbit. Signed on the front with a commemorative dedication on the reverse. Tomobako.
25 x 6.5 cm

Kakutaro Yamazaki (1899-1984) was a Japanese lacquer master whose work spanned the Taisho and Showa periods. Born on June 29, 1899, in Toyama Prefecture, he entered the lacquer department of Takaoka Technical School in 1915 before continuing his studies at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, where he excelled and was recognized as a special student.

In 1925, he gained international recognition by winning the gold medal at the Paris Universal Exposition. This marked the beginning of a prolific career, characterized by a modernization of Japanese lacquer art. He introduced color and explored innovative pictorial compositions that freed lacquerware from its purely utilitarian function.

By the late 1920s, he was teaching at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, becoming a professor in 1943. At the same time, he regularly exhibited at the Imperial Exhibition and various decorative arts shows. His style is defined by concise, dynamic motifs, often inspired by nature and animals.

Committed to promoting Japanese craftsmanship abroad, he traveled to Europe as a researcher for the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and published a book on Parisian lacquer artists. He played an active role in restructuring postwar Japanese exhibitions and became president of the Japan Contemporary Crafts Artists Association in 1940.

In 1954, he received the prestigious Japan Art Academy Prize, followed by the title of Person of Cultural Merit in 1966. He was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure in 1970 and the Order of the Rising Sun in 1977.

Kakutaro Yamazaki passed away on March 1, 1984, in Tokyo. His legacy lies in his bold modernization of Japanese lacquer art, where artistic expression took precedence over mere functionality.