Kodo Otomaru (1898-1997) | A natsume [tea jar] | Showa period, 20th century

Otomaru Kôdô was a master in the choshitsu technique of carved urushi, a specialty of Kagawa prefecture. He was made an Important Intangible Cultural Property Holder (Living National Treasure) by the Japanese government in 1955. Born in Takamatsu City, he studied with local masters while incorporating modern sensibilities and influences into his work and managed to achieve a new style of expression reviving the technique’s popularity. He is one of the most important Kôgei artists of the 20^th century though his work is surprisingly underrepresented in American and European collections.

Multiple photographs in Freddie’s collection attests to these works being purchased with the artist present, possibly on his behalf by Misa Watanabe, the wife of the famous music producer Shin Watanabe of Watanabe Pro, a company that still dominates the music industry in Japan and is run by their daughter. Watanabe Pro helped arrange Queen’s tours and Misa Watanabe became a close friend of Freddie’s, taking him to interesting places to view and purchase art and acting as his personal guide. She can be seen in some of the photographs speaking with an elderly Otomaru Kôdo at a selling exhibition mostly likely taking place at a Japanese Department Store in Tokyo. The two works that Freddie chose are different in style, but both utilise Otomaru’s famous choshitsu technique of carving into the multiply applied layers of different coloured urushi to render a beautifully pattered affect. The square box has a design on the lid of a golden flying crane in maki-e (sprinkled gold) over golden maki-e and mother-of-pearl geometric clouds, contrasting with the gentle purple and violet feather-like patterning made by layers of urushi application cut through into patterns on the sides, and soft layers of different colours of urushi revealed beneath the lid through careful polishing. Both lidded boxes are masterworks in and of themselves and the fact that Freddie understood their importance speaks louder than my words about his instinctual understanding of Japanese art.