Full Bloom Tea Caddy

Japanese glass artist Kyohei Fujita’s work is at once strikingly contemporary and firmly rooted in the Japanese decorative arts tradition. His complex and meticulous surface decorations echo the abstract floral motifs that characterized the popular Rimpa aesthetic that developed in Japan under painter Ogata Kōrin (1658-1716) during the seventeenth century. Rimpa art embraced bold, stylized renderings of natural motifs, primarily exuberant clusters of flowers and leaves, and the luxurious use of precious mineral and metallic pigments. A late twentieth century evocation of Rimpa’s colourful pictorial style, this tea caddy clearly reflects the lasting impact of traditional Japanese aesthetics, while the expressive and spontaneous freedom of the colourful surface decoration demonstrates an unmistakably contemporary experiment in abstraction.