Life In 19x19

Hello,
About a year ago I purchased some bowls from Yahoo Japan. The photo wasn't that great so I thought they'd be something simple to resell or offer as a club prize in a tournament. One the bowls arrived I was amazed at the intricate detail, they are both hand made and great care went into carving them so I decided to keep them for my personal collection.

I'm posting here to see if anyone knows anything about the person who crafted these bowls. His signature is on the bottom but so far I haven't turned anything up .

Those are nice indeed. My guess is that they are mulberry, possibly from Mikura or Miyake Island. Lovely!
Do you see a lot of this kind of thing on Yahoo Japan?

The last two characters, 香り[Kaori], seem to depict a common first name for a Japanese woman.
I can't tell exactly what the first character is. It looks like 加 but I've never seen a Japanese last name like that. I'll wait for someone to prove me wrong.

Either way, they are intricate pieces. Nice going

go west young man wrote:Those are nice indeed. My guess is that they are mulberry, possibly from Mikura or Miyake Island. Lovely!
Do you see a lot of this kind of thing on Yahoo Japan?

It's quite possible they are, though they've lost a lot of the sheen over the years.

You'll see things like this on occasion, perhaps once a month, they usually go for 30,000+. I was rather fortunate, the picture on the auction was very blurry and didn't look appealing at all, I was the only bidder .

I saw a very interesting set of Bamboo bowls go for about 15,000 and another set of coconut for 40,000. These things are rare (usually once a month at best) but do pop up on occasion.

The bowls are certainly not shimaguwa to my eye. They might be keyaki (zelkova). In the photos they look very dirty.

gowan wrote:The bowls are certainly not shimaguwa to my eye. They might be keyaki (zelkova). In the photos they look very dirty.

You know what they say on "Antiques Roadshow," right? Don't tamper with the surface finish of wood items unless you are either a professional refinisher/restorer or you have absolutely no intention of ever trying to sell the items for a profit.

Careless handling during refinishing or cleaning could soften the edges of the carving. Be careful.

A lovely find, indeed, unique and quite likely once a family treasure. The provenance would be fascinating reading but you could probably write your own novelette.