This wooden tray was made in the Taisho period and was uniquely painted by a geographer renowned in the field. According to an old stamp on the bottom, the bear was painted by geographer and mountaineer Yamazaki Naomasa. This is 24 cm (just less than 10 inches) diameter and in overall excellent condition.
Yamasaki Naomasa (1870–1929) is regarded as the father of modern Japanese geography. He was a professor at Tokyo Imperial University from 1911 to 1929, where he created the department of geography and founded The Association of Japanese Geographers. The latter is the primary academic geographic society in Japan.
