4 September 2026 | Hong Kong | full auction details

The Okada Museum collection continues to unveil its extraordinary depth, this time presenting a magnificent dialogue between the artistic heritages of Japan and China. Representing some of the highest expressions of skill, imagination, and technical mastery from across East Asia, these works encompass both the monumental and the intimate. From the enigmatic clay figures of ancient burial mounds to the immaculate imperial porcelains of the Ming and Qing courts, and the refined, poetic collaborations of Kyoto’s greatest masters, the collection reveals a breathtaking breadth of aesthetic vision. Whether carved through dark slip, brushed in gold and silver, or fired in the exacting kilns of Jingdezhen and Hizen, each work speaks to a culture where beauty, history, and a reverence for the natural world are inseparable.

A vivid narrative of early history and spiritual life unfolds through the collection’s most ancient treasures. The simple yet evocative expressions of Japan’s distant past are captured in a rare late Kofun period Haniwa figure of a woman. Adorned with protective magatama beads and bearing a jar, she offers a poignant glimpse into the daily life and spiritual rituals of the fifth and sixth centuries. Across the sea, the cosmopolitan spirit of China’s Silk Road is immortalised in a remarkably dynamic Tang dynasty amber-glazed figure of a dog. Displaying a rare sense of movement and animation, it stands as a lively testament to the millennia-old bond between humans and their animal companions.

The collection further celebrates the zenith of Chinese ceramic art, tracing its evolution through bold innovation and imperial refinement. The vigorous spirit of the Northern Song dynasty is brilliantly expressed in a Cizhou sgraffiato 'peony' jar, where deep carving breathes three-dimensional life into a striking, rhythmic peony scroll. This mastery reaches a pinnacle of imperial elegance in an exceptionally rare Xuande mark and period white-glazed charger. Continuing the Yongle Emperor’s reverence for jade-like ’sweet white’ (tianbai) glazes and Tibetan Buddhist traditions, its masterfully incised ’lotus bouquet’ encapsulates the technical perfection of the early Ming dynasty. This legacy of imperial patronage and reverence for antiquity continued into the Qing dynasty, beautifully represented by a pair of Yongzheng yellow-ground bowls, inspired by Ming prototypes and playfully enamelled with children at play.

Returning to Japan, the collection highlights the exquisite sophistication of Edo-period craftsmanship and the enduring legacy of the Rimpa school. The exclusivity of shogunate presentation wares is perfectly embodied in a magnificent Nabeshima porcelain dish. Rendered in underglaze cobalt blue and brilliant overglaze enamels, it showcases flawless technical refinement through a picturesque design of a rattan basket holding crackle-glazed jars, beautifully offset by softly shaded red camellias and delicate narcissus. Meanwhile, the refined urban aesthetic of seventeenth-century Kyoto is distilled into a single, breathtaking poem card (shikishi). A collaborative masterpiece, it features the melancholic calligraphy of Hon’ami Koetsu brushed over Tawaraya Sotatsu’s delicate gold and silver underpainting of bush clover, merging visual art and classical waka poetry into a singular, harmonious expression.

The collection’s profound reverence for the natural world and human experience finds a sweeping culmination in Sakuma Soen’s Bird’s-Eye View of Famous Places. This rare pair of eighteenth-century folding screens offers a breathtaking, panoramic journey from Lake Biwa and Mount Fuji to the bustling festivities of Edo-period Japan, serving as a vital record of a master at his peak. Together, these masterpieces from the Okada Museum collection illustrate a continual, running thread across centuries and borders: a pursuit to seek poetry in the natural world and the rhythms of daily life. Through this extraordinary assemblage, a unique aesthetic sensibility emerges that transcends both time and place, enriching the viewer today just as it has for generations.