Vintage Antique Japanese Patinated Bronze Vase Manner of Okazaki Sessei Shojiro

This is a nice vintage antique Japanese patinated bronze vase in the manner of Okazaki Sessei Shojiro In pretty decent shape as the pics show with minimal wear having only a small spot along the rim having a loss to the patina seen in pic 10 and it comes exactly as shown. It measures 8 1/2" in diameter, it is 8 5/8" tall and the base is 3 in diameter. Born in Yamashiro Province present-day southern Kyoto Prefecture, Okazaki Sessei studied metal casting under his father, a kettle caster in Osaka. In 1877, he moved to Tokyo to study casting under Suzuki Masayoshi. Afterwards, he began to work independently as a casting artist.

The Tokyo School of Fine Art was founded in 1889, and in the following year, Sessei was invited to join the faculty. In 1891, he was promoted to assistant professor, and in 1896, full professor. When the faculty became split and disordered following the resignation of Okakura Tenshin in 1898, he also resigned.

Sessei participated in both domestic and international expositions, including the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893 and the Naikoku Kangyo Hakurankai or National Industrial Expositions (at one of which his work was awarded a prize). He became famous for his large-scale, cast works for public spaces. These include the decorative lion-dogs in Nihonbashi, the statue of Saigo Takamori at Ueno Park, and the statue of Kusanoki Masashige in the square before the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.