Four Seasons by Danitrio. Not sure wich sub-board to post, so post them here. Every artist has his/her own idea of Four seasons. We have seen Visconti's 4 Seasons... Sailor's 4 seasons of Mt. Fuji... and even Danitrio has at least 2 set of 4 seasons done by 2 different artists with completely different intrepretations. Here is the 3rd set and yet very different. The set is done by Mr. Koichiro Okazaki.

1. Dawn of Spring
Kogaku san uses Sakura as a theme for Spring Every Sakura raised the contour with silver powders and Urushi, and hollow the center. The center of the flowers with abalone Raden and use #5 and #8 gold powders to draw the lines and the pink points are done with clear Urushi.
The mountains were done by technique of Bokashi-maki and Togidashi Maki-e method by using different sizes of both platinum and gold powders. Simply, this is Sakura by Taka Maki-e on mountains by Togidashi Maki-e.






2. Fireworks of Summer
Summer in Japan is warm and very humid, and therefore, pictures with a scene of enjoying the cool air is very popular. The author uses firework exhibition as the theme of Summer at night. Very fine size, #1 powders were used for the fireworks. The mountains where the fireworks were shot were painted with #10 gold and silver powders. The whole base is black Urushi Togidashi. The main part of this Maki-e is on the people. which were done by Shishiai Taka Maki-e. The floor of veranda at the bottom is white shell Raden.

Here we see a lady clad in kimono on a bridge looking at the firework. This artist is very good at doing a lady's back side. Yes, he is the one who did one of my favorite lady's back side... Kaguyahime


Notice the curvacious line of the lady


And the details of the Kimono with raden accent


The fireworks done with very fine gold powders


And look at the detail of the floor... done piece by piece..


Pen uncapped


4. Deer of Autumn
Japanese like to use deer to symbol season of fall. The Seven Flowders of Autumn were painted on the cap. The large moon contoured with platinum powders Bokashi technique. The deer is Taka Maki-e with #6, #7 and #10 gold powders. Abalone Raden for the eye and also use colored Urushi for the details.


The deer with the raden eyes


(part of) 7 flowers of the fall


The Kanji reads "Autumn scene and deer". Notice the fine platinum powder at the edge to accent the moon


Pen uncapped


exquisite Japanese maple maki-e on top of cap


4. Cranes and Winter. The whole snowclad mountain is done by Shishiai Togidashi Maki-e with gold and platinum powders. The sky is Bokashi-nuri. The cloud contoured by silver powders raised with Urushi and also gold powders. The Urushi used are red and orange clear Urushi and red Urushi. The crane is easy to see that they are raised by different sizes of gold and platinum powders, and even the water has its details colored clear Urushi painted. This part is Togidashi Maki-e.




pen uncapped


Hope you enjoy these pens as much as I do.

Kevin

OK Kevin, make my life a living hell and tell me what the Autumn Deer costs....
My daughter said I absolutely have to have that pen because I am a bowhunter.... and of course she is absolutely correct...

So go ahead, make me miserable....


UH.... do you have an extremely liberal payment plan I mean the kind where I get the pen and you eventually get paid in full...

Since your daughter likes it, this may be a good case for a multigenerational payment plan.

Two questions Kevin:

How much is the Crane?

Do you do installment plans?

I am going to get one of these one day. They are beautiful, stunningly so.

Joi

What's that line from the Sit n' Sleep commercials.....



YOU'RE KILLING ME, KEV!!!!



Joi

Amazing... simply amazing.

Kevin these are truly beautiful, thanks so much for sharing.

Andrew

Truly an eye candy. Thanks for posting.

Mike

Okay, you got me even looking at these....

I'm not a fan of these maki-e type of pens. I was thinking, DOH, he bumped my for sale post down with these...

but I got to looking at them, and all I can say is WOW.... I am most impressed with the work that must go into these.

if I had to pick one, it would have to be the fireworks of summer pen, the detail of the fireworks, the kimono, the floor, etc... I just can't believe that someone takes the time to produce a pen with this much detail.

Thanks for sharing, thanks for posting the pictures, with all of the detail, I really gained an appreciation for these pens.

Dare I ask, what something like this costs?

can they be used?

Ooh, the summer.



What size pen are these based on?

LOL. I know if I get your daughter to love the pen... then I get you. LOL. Seriously though Okazaki both father and son are my absolute favorite artists. The woman looks so curvacious, the kimono so "flowy", the deer so real stare right at you... I mean, what's not to love?... well, ok, maybe the price... I know, I know... the retail for each pen is $15,000.

errrh, what is a "liberal" payment plan. Nothing to do with democrats or republicans I hope. Just kidding. I am sure something can be worked out.

Glad you and your daughter love the pen.

Best,

Kevin

Hi Joi,

Glad you like the pens. The retail is $15,000 each. Not cheap I know, but considering, there are new maki-e offerings in the market that retails for $20,000 and up, with techniques not as complicated as these, I don't think the price is out of the line. Of course installments are always welcome.

Kev

Hi Rick,

Glad you like the pens. Yes, the pen is fully functional.

Best,

Kevin

The pens are based on the big "Genkai" size. Genkai literally means the "limit". These are huge, clipless pens that provide artists great canvas for their work.

Kev

Car/house down payment or pen. I'm torn....



Seriously, Kevin -- these are stunning. I always look forward to your Maki-e posts. They'd make great desktop wallpaper for a computer.

The only problem with these is that if I bought one, I'd have to turn around and sell it immediately to cover the lawyer fees associated with the divorce.

Don

Glad you like the pens. Please feel free to use my photos for wallpaper or personal use. I am honored.

As for wifes and divorce... well you can always have new ones Just kidding of course.

Kevin

No wonder I like them so much, there go my outrageous tastes again.

One day, not today But one day!

Joi

Does the working out include a witness protection resettlement?

Joi

I think my hands would shake if I wrote with a $15,000 pen. Exquisitely beautiful--thanks for posting the pictures.

Those are gorgeous pens! I'm... I'm... I'm speechless. I really can't say anything else.

Unfortunately, If I buy one of those not only does my daughter lose part of her college fund, but my wife will make sure she no longer has a father ....
They are absolutely stunning.... time to buy more lottery tickets and hope for the best.... Especially since my daughter is too young to apply for a scholership....

As for the liberal payment policy... my idea was that I send you what I can afford as a down payment, you sent me the pen, I sign an agreement to pay you the rest of the money....


















IF you catch me.....

Glad you like the pen... BTW, interesting Avatar... You do know what the kanji means right?

Kev

Actually, I do. I hope it's not that negative, is it?
I like the symbol in itself. To be frank, I was looking for something more close to the meaning of daemon, but I know close to nothing about Japanese...

Anyway, I can't really express how I feel about the pens: they're absolute beauty, a true work of art!

Where is that drooling smiley????






Wish I had hit the lottery last week.

hi winedoc,

can you recommend a good guide to maki e quality and different finishes? Also for urushi pens? I would be very interested in learning more on quality/process/standards.

Thanks,

Manuel

hey, no problem as long as you know what it means. I sometimes see people with T-shirts with some Kanji on them and wonder if they know what they means.

Depends on how you use that word, it can mean Demon, ghost, magic etc.

Kev

Hi Manuel,

There are several books out there on Maki-e, and all of them have nice pictures, but don't go into details on technical part of maki-e. These are, at least for me, nice coffee table look. Danitrio does have a maki-e book which will explain different kinds of urushi, different kinds of maki-e techniques along with nice photos. They use some of their older maki-e pens as examples. This by far has most technical informations on maki-e down to brush size, gold powder sizes etc. Also included is a section on their artists and their works. If you are interested, please contact me back channel.

Best,

Kevin