"Japanese Bronze By Sakai Kozan - 'tsuki Miru Kitsune' Or Foxes Looking At The Moon - Circa 1955"
Sakai Kozan was the director of the Takaoka Chugei-sha metalworks workshop in Takaoka, Toyama Prefecture. The workshop was founded by his ancestor Sakai-ya Riemon during the Keio period (1865–1868), at the end of the Edo period. The workshop produced cast bronzes, some of which were monumental works to order, such as a bronze incense burner at Zenkoji Temple (Nagano Prefecture) and a bronze Buddha statue (28 meters high and 80 tons) at Lake Nagahama-Biwako, Shiga Prefecture. The Sakai Bronze Manufactory is still in operation today.