Our featured work of art for the month of August is this beautiful pair of Japanese, late 19th Century vases by Chomin and depicting Minogame and Geese. As always with our blogs, you can click on any of the images to take a closer look at the featured piece. We hope you enjoy the read.
Minogame are legendary turtles, said to live for up to 10,000 years. Notably they have long strands of algae or seaweed growing from the back of their shells. In fact, the name “Minogame” translates as “Turtle with a Straw raincoat” – their long tails resembling the straw coats that farmers would wear to keep them dry and warm during inclement weather.
Because of their condsiderable lifespan, Minogame have become popular symbols of long life and prosperity across South-East Asia and they are often associated with and depicted alongside Jurojin, one of the Seven Japanese Gods of Fortune. Jurojin, himself an iconic symbol of long-life, famously has a long beard, reminiscent in appearance to the tail of the Minogame.
An aquatic creature, the Minogame spends most of their lives in the water but they do often venture on land to sun themselves on rocks or logs.
Wild Geese (“Gan”) have long been a popular subject in Japanese art and they carry lots of symbolism. Wild geese flying in pairs represents a happy marriage and Geese flying in formation in front of a full moon is a sign of the coming of Autumn.
When the rice is ready to harvest, wild geese are often found nearby and this is seen as a good omen that it will be a plentiful harvest.
There is a popular Japanese folk-story about two young warriors, Yoshiie and Kiyowara Takenori. It was known that Wild Geese would always fly in an organised formation unless they were agitated by something happening on the ground.
The two heroes noticed that the Geese flying overhead quickly broke formation and that helpfully informed them that their enemies were hiding nearby waiting to ambush.
Geese flying in a straight line or in the iconic “V” formation is a symbol of collaboration and team-work, with each member of the flock taking their turn to lead from the front. As such, Geese have also come to represent qualities such as unity, leadership, dependence, family and loyalty.
We hope you enjoyed this article. You can browse over 100 stories inspired by our collection of Chinese and Japanese Fine Art and Antiques by clicking here.
