White frosted glass on black cut through to reveal the image of a crane soaring over snow covered pines signed on the base Matsu. The craftsmanship is so delicate, it is everything we would expect of the exacting nature of Japanese art made to look easy. The lid is capped by a glass lotus flower finial. It is 7 inches (17.5 cm) diameter and comes in a wooden box.
Matsumoto Masao was born in Ishikawa Prefecture in 1943 and graduated Fukui University Department of Education in 1965. He began working with the paste glass Technique in 1983, furthering his repertoire with sandblasting in 1986. That same year he participated in the International Glass Art Fair in Kanazawa, and would confine himself to glass specialty exhibits until 1998, when he first exhibited with the Nihon Dento Kogei Ten Natioanl Crafts Exhibition, which covers all mediums. He was picked up by the Takashimaya gallery in 1988 and consistently displayed with them, as well as Daimaru among others. Work by him is held in the Morioka Sahara Glass Park, Suwa Glass no Sato Museum, in Nagano, and Nagoya Daichi Museum.
