An owl perches upon a twisting trunk beside a dark pool where the moon gathers in quiet reflection. Contemporary Japanese sculptor Jinbo Miyabi shapes the figure from one piece of timber using ichiboku zukuri (single block carving), allowing the grain to guide the sculpture’s organic form. The vigilant bird recalls the attentive study of animals long present in Japanese visual culture, from medieval picture scrolls to the lively animal subjects favored in Edo period netsuke (Lot 41) and the articulated creatures of jizai okimono (Lots 7 and 8). The same single block approach appears in the expressive wooden figures of Enku (Lot 5).
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