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I have a Japanese bronze vase and was wondering what it said on the base!

Thanks in advance.

I can't provide a phonetically accurate Japanese transcription but the kanji and katakana characters appear read from the left and across as:

Memento of project completion (竣工紀念)

Western Japan Corporaton for making Methanol from Tree Boles (西日本メタノール株式会社)

February, 47th year of the Showa Reign (昭和四十七年二月)

Showa was the reign title of the Emperor Hirohito. The 47th year would be 1972, I believe.

Now that you know what it says, the rest of us are wondering what the vase looks like.

Best regards,

Bill H.

Thanks for your reply Bill.

Here are the images.

It's Bronze stands around 22cm tall and has an unusual splash style of decoration which I can't make out?

Thought at first it was enameled but it's not?

Would love to hear your thoughts?

Gary.

I've seen other late 20th century Japanese vases with a similar kind of artificial patina in antique and decorator shops. Japan has a long tradition of treating their metallic works of art to enhance their appearance, and they are justifiably unapologetic about it.

Here's a photo of another bronze vase, 14.5 inches tall, with interesting patina that possibly dates as early as the Taisho period (1912-26) or as late as around mid-century. I have yet to verify the actual pronunciation of the maker's name and factory location. The first character literally is "Time" (Toki - 時), and the other two ("Kaizo" - 改造) indicate the firm to be a metal recasting or reforming factory.

The fact that both of our vases lack great age and are obviously fabricated instead of being sculpted and cast in lost wax will tend to keep their prices fairly affordable for the foreseeable future I think.

Best regards,

Bill H.

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