Japanese bronze rooster with long tail signed Yoshiaki zo Meiji period

Japanese bronze rooster with long tail naturalistically cast looking down at the ground, the feather work finely carved with rich brown copper patination, gilt legs and beak with shakudo claws. The eyes inlaid in glass and a dark red patinated comb standing on a gnarled wood base signed beneath the tail in a rectangular reserve Yoshiaki zo 美明造, Meiji Period (1868-1912).

The artist Ishida Yoshiaki 石田美明 exhibited at the 1900 (Meiji 33) Paris Exposition.

The rooster (tori 酉) is the tenth symbol of the Japanese Zodiac and was thought to embody courage, loyalty, literary accomplishment and virtue.

Size of rooster without wood base: H 28.5cm (11.22" in.) x W 21cm (8.26" in.)

Reference: Tokyo National Research Institution of Cultural Property, Meiji-ki Banpaku-Hakurankai Bijutsuhin Shuppin Mokuroku 明治期万国博覧会美術品出品目録  Catalogue of objects exhibited at the Overseas Expositions during the Meiji Period, Tokyo, 1997.

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