Ishida Rainosuke Kyoto Ware Rooster Figurine — Shinnen Tori Year Gold Enamel Sculpture, Signed Box

Experience Authentic Japan Art with this Kyoto Ware Zodiac Rooster Figurine. This Gold Enamel Sculpture serves as a Japanese New Year Decoration and Collector Ceramic Figurine, featuring Hand-Sculpted Rooster Form and Gold Kinrande Enamel Base—a must-have for any Art Collector.

🔹 [ BASIC DETAILS ]
• Artist: Ishida Rainosuke (石田来之助)
• Publisher / Distributor: Kyoto Toga (京都陶雅)
• Style: Kyo-yaki (京焼) — Kyoto ceramic tradition
• Technique: Hand-modeled sculpture; hakuji (white porcelain body) with gold and black kinrande enamel base; fine craquelure throughout
• Theme: Eto okimono, Year of Rooster (Tori-doshi / 酉年); titled 「神苑鶏」(Shinen Tori — Sacred Garden Rooster)
• Era: Showa–Heisei period (mid–late 20th century)
• Origin: Kyoto, Japan
• Dimensions: Height approx. 20–22 cm (estimated from images; large-scale figurine)
• Box: Original wooden tomobako inscribed 神苑鶏 置物 石田来之助
• Condition: No chips or cracks; craquelure is intrinsic to the glaze — excellent

🔹 [ Cultural & Artistic Insight ]
Kyo-yaki (Kyoto ware) has for centuries produced ceramics of aristocratic refinement—overglaze enamel painting, gold and silver kinrande decoration, and sculptural forms destined for formal display in tokonoma alcoves and temple settings. Unlike the rustic directness of Karatsu or Hagi, Kyoto ware speaks a courtly visual language: precise, ornamental, and deeply conscious of occasion.

Zodiac okimono (干支置物) are a venerable art form in Japan, produced each year to mark the animal sign of the coming twelve-month cycle. The rooster—tenth in the zodiac sequence—embodies punctuality (the cock that marks dawn), integrity, and the courage to speak clearly. As a sculptural subject the rooster offers the artist the opportunity to explore contour and mass: the swelling chest, the compressed tail plumage, the proud upward turn of the head.

Ishida Rainosuke's "Shinnen Tori" (Sacred Garden Rooster) renders the bird in a posture of alert repose—chest forward, head raised in mid-crow, tail feathers swept back in an elegant arc. The body is modeled in smooth white porcelain (hakuji) with fine craquelure, while the oval base is finished in a striking kinrande pattern: gold leaf and black pigment recalling Momoyama decorative traditions. The contrast between the restrained white body and the opulent base gives the piece a composed drama.

🔹 [ Deep-Dive Commentary ]
The scale of this okimono commands attention. At approximately 20–22 cm tall, this is not a miniature but a substantial presence piece—the kind that occupies a tokonoma or display shelf with genuine authority. The rooster's posture is sculptural rather than merely decorative: there is tension in the forward lean of the body, a sense of imminent sound, the split second before the crow.

The white porcelain skin is animated by a fine all-over craquelure—the network of hairline cracks that develop as the glaze contracts at a different rate than the clay body during cooling. In Kyoto ware, this effect is often deliberately cultivated; it gives the surface an aged, silk-like texture quite different from the clean gloss of common porcelain. Light plays differently across a craquelure surface—more diffuse, more complex.

The kinrande base is the counterweight. Black and gold in overlapping fields of intricate pattern, it anchors the white bird in a visual drama of contrast. This decorative vocabulary—gold on dark, dense pattern meeting open form—is characteristic of Momoyama-influenced Kyoto ware and connects this piece to a lineage of objects made for aristocratic and ceremonial spaces.

For the Tori-doshi year of birth (1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017) the piece carries personal resonance as a commemorative or gift object. As a display sculpture it works year-round: a rooster in a Kyoto porcelain tradition, with a signed box, is simply a complete and serious collector object.

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[ JAPANESE DESCRIPTION / 日本語解説 ]

【基本情報】
作者：石田来之助
発売元：京都陶雅
様式：京焼（白磁・金彩・黒彩）
技法：手びねり成形・白磁胴体・金彩黒彩金蘭手台座・貫入
題名：神苑鶏（酉年干支置物）
寸法：高さ 約20〜22cm（大型）
共箱：「神苑鶏 置物 石田来之助」墨書
状態：ヒビ・カケなし。貫入は本来の釉景色。

【文化的背景・作品解説】
京焼は平安の都が育んだ優美な陶芸の伝統。色絵・金彩・白磁など格調の高い技法を得意とし、床の間や茶席の飾りとして長く愛されてきた。干支置物は新年の到来を寿ぐ日本固有の造形文化であり、石田来之助の「神苑鶏」は酉年の象徴たる鶏を堂々とした大振りの彫塑で表現している。胸を張り、声を放つ直前の緊張感——白磁の肌に宿る気品と、金蘭手の台座が放つ桃山的な豪華さが一体となった、床の間に映える晴れやかな一品。酉年生まれの方への贈り物としても、書斎や玄関の飾りとしても存在感を放つ。

🔹 [ SHIPPING & PACKAGING ]
• Dispatch: Within 1-6 business days
• Carrier: Japan Post EMS / UPS (with tracking)
• Packaging: Carefully wrapped with protective materials