Tokyo school bronze of a peasant by Udagawa Kazuo,

A superb and large Tokyo school bronze of a peasant by Udagawa Kazuo,
He is shown sitting on a fallen tree branch eating his meal, holding a pair of chop sticks and a cup in his right hand and a woven basket of food in his left, with marvellous detail to the facial expression, dark green patination, on a rootwood stand, signed ‘Udagawa Kazuo sei zo’ and the top line,’ Japanese Foundry’. Japanese, c 1900.

Footnote: Udagawa Kazuo was called Udagawa Sutejiro, until he became a top sculptor in the Tokyo school in1906. He exhibited at the third (1890) and fifth (1903) Inland Industrial Exhibitions (Naikoku kangyo hakurankai) and under his new name, Udagawa Kazuo, at the Paris Great Expo in 1900, the St Louis Exposition in 1904, and the Great Britain and Japan Exposition, London in 1910. His work is included in the Japanese Department of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.