KAJIKAWA: A SUPERB SET OF THREE LACQUER SAKE SAUCERS DEPICTING BUDDHA AND THE BODHISATTVAS MONJU (MANJUSHRI) AND FUGEN (SAMANTABHADRA)By a member of the Kajikawa family, each signed Kajikawa sakuJapan, 19th century, Edo period (1615-1868)Each of circular form with shallow rounded sides supported on a short spreading foot, bearing a silver ground to the interior finely decorated in gold and colored takamaki-e, hiramaki-e and togidashi-e. The largest depicting Buddha seated in dhyanasana, wearing loose-fitting robes decorated with stylized lotus and scrolling foliage, his serene face with heavy-lidded eyes and full lips forming a calm smile, the hair arranged in tight curls over the ushnisha; the second-largest depicting Monju Bosatsu (Manjushri) seated on a shishi and reading a scroll; the smallest depicting Fugen Bosatsu (Samantabhadra) seated on an elephant and holding a nyoi-scepter. All three deities are backed by circular halos. The exteriors each red-lacquered, the bases each with the gold-lacquered signature KAJIKAWA saku [made by Kajikawa].DIAMETER 13.8 cm, 12.6 cm, and 11.3 cmCondition: Excellent condition with minor wear.Provenance: From the estate of Soo Sui-ling and Dr. Cornelius Osgood, and thence by descent in the same family. The interior of the foot with remnants of an old label. Dr. Cornelius Osgood (1905-1983) was a professor of anthropology at Yale University and a leading scholar of the cultures of the Arctic and East Asia. His association with the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale began in 1930 when he joined the university's faculty, and over the years he was instrumental in building up and organizing the museum's collection. He became curator of the museum's anthropology department in 1934 and was appointed the Peabody's associate director in 1966. He held both positions until his retirement in 1973. His publications include a multivolume study of the Athabascan tribes of northern Canada and Alaska as well as Winter, a memoir of the year he spent living among the Indians of Canada’s Northwest Territories in the 1920s. In later years, he specialized in Far Eastern societies, publishing “The Koreans and Their Culture” in 1951, and “Village Life in Old China” in 1963.The Kajikawa family were Japanese lacquerware artists whose school in Edo flourished for more than 200 years. Kyujiro is generally acknowledged as the founder of the family and the inaugurator of its traditions. He excelled in designing particularly delicate lacquer inro. Kajikawa artists also designed lacquer netsuke. Other lacquer objects by this school are considerably rarer than inro and netsuke.Museum comparison:Compare a related single sake cup, signed Kajikawa, in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, accession no. W.141-1921.