A Superb Old Japanese Natural Form Burl Wood Okimono or Scholars Object

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A Superb Old Japanese Natural Form Burl Wood Okimono or Scholars Object

This beautiful and mysterious object is a root wood Okimomo from Japan. Its form can be what you see when viewing clouds in the sky and each person sees something different.  It may have once had a small stand at the top to have set something on it, I have seen these stands occasionally.  It was likely made in the late 19^th Century. This artwork has been in my home for many years and it still delights the eye to see it each day as if seeing it for the first time.  Sometimes it looks like a twisting dragon but no matter what side you look at there is always something new in the form.

The Japanese aesthetic of using natural forms in wood with minimal additions by the artist are some of the most beautiful objects in my collection.

An Okimono is a carved Japanese decorative object created specifically for display,

This is a Wabi-Sabi Okimono that may have been used in tea ceremonies for Ikebana Flower Displays

In Zen philosophy there are seven aesthetic principles for achieving Wabi-Sabi as listed below;

Fukinsei (不均斉): asymmetry, irregularity;

Kanso (簡素): simplicity;

Koko (考古): basic, weathered;

Shizen (自然): without pretence, natural;

Yugen (幽玄): subtly profound grace, not obvious;

Datsuzoku (脱俗): unbounded by convention, free;

Scholar’s objects were, in a sense, the luxury goods of their time, but rather than wealth what they really represented was the physical embodiment of the scholar’s intellectual curiosity and aesthetic taste.

Provenance: The Todd Barlin Collection of Japanese Art & Objects & Asian Art & Objects. Please look at my collection of Japanese Inro & Smoking Pouches & other Japanese art objects on my website.

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