Japanese bronze sculpture by Hachii Kôji - Rooster

Okimono or bronze rooster sculpture. Signed on the reverse with the artist's signature, kôji saku (made by). Showa period, circa 1930-1940.

Hachii KÔJI (1905-1967) was born in Kanazawa. He graduated from the foundry department of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1929. He studied with Takamura Hoshu and Naito Haruji. He was admitted to the Teiten ( exhibition organized by the Imperial Academy of Arts from 1919 to 1934) for the first time in 1928. Subsequently, his work was frequently accepted at the Teiten, and after its reorganization, at the Shin-Bunten (exhibition organized by the Ministry of Culture from 1936 to 1943) until the war. He also worked for a training institute under the Ministry of Trade and Industry. In his youth, he was a member of the Mukei artist group, with whom he also exhibited. Later in his career, he focused on sculptural work.

Hachii Koji's works are in the collections of the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum, and one of his modern constructivist sculptures from 1928 is illustrated in The Art of Ishikawa, page 123, plate 142.

In 2012 a bronze from the 1960s by the same artist, depicting a polar bear, was sold at Christie's.