5. Iro-e Cast Bronze — The Lovebird

This is the Cast-Bronze Lovebird Ornament, finished in colored enamel. It was exhibited in 1940 at the Fourth Bunten, the Ministry of Education Fine Arts Exhibition. Among Shodo's many works, this piece is unusual: it employs a technique called iro-e dō, colored enamel on copper, and it was an ambitious, challenging work. Iro-e dō charms with the beauty of its coloring, but it carried one great problem: with the passage of time, the colors flake and fall away — what is called hakuraku, peeling. Fully aware of that problem, Shodo went so far as to study the techniques of a chemical factory, piled research upon research, and deliberately took on the challenge of this technique. Please look closely. Astonishingly, these vivid colors have remained almost unchanged since the day the piece was made, and it keeps its beautiful form to this day. What colors of the future, I wonder, did Shodo entrust to this small bird?