Deer prance about in abbreviated Art-Deco windows on this large vase by Okamoto Tameji enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Hakuji Asobu-Shika-zu Kabin (Vase in pale porcelain decorated with playing Deer). It is 33.5 tall, 32.5 cm (roughly 13 inches) diameter and in excellent condition. Stylistically it is consistent with his works from the early 1930s.
Okamoto Tameji (1901-1958) was born in in the International Port city of Kobe and raised in Kyoto, the artistic and cultural heartland of Japan. He attended the Kyoto Municipal Tojiki Shikenjo Ceramic Research Facility, and apprenticed under Kawamura Seizan. He was first accepted into the Bunten/Teiten National Exhibition in 1927, and was selected for and awarded there consistently both pre and post war. His works were featured at the Chicago, San Francisco and New York Expositions.
