4. Brass Vase with Willow Design

This is the Brass Vase with Willow Design. Exhibited in 1919 at the Seventh Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce Art Exhibition, it received the second prize in a year when no first prize was awarded. First, please take a slow look at the vessel as a whole. It stands with a commanding presence — upright, with a poised form that gives not the slightest sense of slackness. The bands of horizontal lines running across the surface of the vase are carried around it in several tiers, a design worked out with meticulous care. They create a taut composition, as if drawing the whole vase together and bracing it from within. The willow branches are rendered with fine, supple lines — so delicate that they seem about to sway and stir at any moment. The consummate technique on display is a perfection that has been called the very pinnacle of lost-wax casting. In later years, this vase returned once more to Shodo's hands, to have its coloring renewed. On that occasion, Shodo is said to have remarked: "In my young days, I really did work with such care, didn't I."