Casket: Red and White Plum Blossoms
Artist: Kyohei Fujita (Japanese, 1921-2004)
Date: 1990
Dimensions:
H: 18 cm (7 in.); W: 24.1 cm (9 1/2 in.); D: 24.1 cm (9 1/2 in.)
Medium: Glass; mold-blown, cut, applied colors, platinum and gold leaf; silver rim.
Classification: Glass
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 1991.56
Label Text:Kyohei Fujita, one of Japan's pioneering and preeminent glass artists, opened his own independent glass studio in 1949, despite not having mastered all technical aspects of glassblowing and lacking assured income. He based Red and White Plum Blossoms on traditional Japanese lacquered storage boxes from the Heian Period (794–1192). Fujita modernized the form with decorations that feature abstracted and nature-based patterns, rendered in metallic foils and colored speckles encased in a layer of glass. In 1977 Fujita began working in Italy to expand his knowledge of the material by learning the traditions and history of Venetian glassblowing. Today, Fujita’s work continues to influence a global network of artists working in glass.
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