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The black marble crane sculpture is about 30inches tall with the acrylic base and signed Kuki 37/200
I love to find out more information about this artist.
Thank you.
KK

Ihave no information for you. I was looking for myself. I just bought a two-foot whale sculpture, by the same artist. The whale is numbered: 1/200. I belive the medium is marble. I too, would be most grateful for any information

I see this thread hasn't been active for 3 years... I also own a large sculpture by the same artist. Its modern abstract. Signed KUKI 6/100. I haven't been able to find any information either. I bought mine from an estate with some important Asian art... At first I thought it was marble or stone as well, but its actually a lacquered metal I'm fairly positive. I think your pieces are probably metal as well, which would make sense that they are one of a series and not a one off.

The information I have to add, is that I thought this artist was referenced in the book "Faith and Power in Japanese Buddhist Art, 1600 - 2005." by Patricia Graham. Because when I googled "signed kuki" her book came up on an online article site with the text in quotes "marble sculpture signed Kuki 90/100". Unfortunately, the site had to take her article down so the google link went to an error message. I ordered the book and am looking it over. So far, I cannot find this reference.

I hope someone else knows something about this artist! I'm very curious...

Caitlin, I just located two penguin sculptures by Kuki. They are located on Istdibs. www. Istdibs.com/furniture. I will phone tomorrow to see if I can find out any more information. They consider this Modernist. They are signed and numbered like ours are. Price for the two is $2, 400.

I contacted the antique store, that had a pair of penguins. They knew no more than we do. They thought Kuki, was either Hawaiian or Swedish. Most likely, Hawaiian.

I knew one would show up on 1st dibs sooner or later. The dealers there often times know very little about the objects they are selling, and offer them at the highest retail prices. Interesting though - thank you for the reply!

I am still pretty certain that Kuki is a Japanese artist - definitely not Hawaiian, etc - BUT there is a big chance a Japanese artist moved to Hawaii or was working with a gallery there, so someone could have purchased it there. There is a large Japanese community there.

The only auction results for this artist are at small auction houses in Japan.

old thread , i know , but i can clear up a few questions asked herein ...

the artist is ' masatoyo kishi '...
born in japan , in 1924 ...
kishi uses the artist name ' KUKI ' when producing sculpture ...

the sculptures are not metal , but cast stone ...
granite , or dolomite chips are mixed w/ a poly resin , and cast in molds ...
the resulting pieces may be worked and polished similarly to stone ...
think something akin to corian ...

Thank you for the information.

I have the crane sculpture as well it is marked Kuki 40/200 I am also curious

I also have one of his sculptures of the same material that I purchased at a local estate sale. I am going to list it on eBay shortly as we simply have no room to display it. Since it had a small problem, I researched Mr. Masatoyo Kishi and here is what I found:
He is 84 years old and lives at 14232 Anchor Lane, Grass Valley, CA 95945-9332, tel: 530-273-5151. His e-mail address is mykishi0@earthlink.net. He is quite a delightful gentleman to talk to! He advised me that the "KUKI" name is his wife's maiden name and means nine demons. He uses this name for limited edition stone sculptures. The sculptures are cast stone. I hope that this still gets to you and helps. I am trying to attach a photo of my sculpture before he repaired a tip piece that had broken off .

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